Groundwork for flexion/suppleness

[The_Dappled_One.]

I'm looking for some good groundwork exercises for suppleness, flexion and relaxation.
My horse has some difficulty bending to the right and he improves greatly with serpentines and circles when ridden, but I'd like to encorporate more groundwork that focuses on this. I'm terrible at long reining (blame the short legs and breathing problems) and I feel while he is happy to stretch on the lunge, it isn't doing much for his suppleness.

Any help or ideas are appreciated

 

[Wheels]

Straightness training?

 

[Cowpony]

I do pole work with mine, especially poles which are raised at one side, alternately down the line, and poles on a curve so you can lengthen and shorten the stride. Also set up 4 poles in an L shape and get the horse to back up round the L both ways. When your horse is good at it you can narrow the space between the poles to make the turn tighter.

Without poles you can also do turns on the forehand, which helps to get their hind leg stepping under more, and turns on the haunches.

Carrot stretches help with suppleness too. You'd be amazed how far a horse can stretch in lots of different ways, if you've never done it before.

 

[The_Dappled_One.]

Straightness training?

Probably a silly question but what exercises would you include in that?

 

[Wheels]

Straightness training is a brand - you can buy a home learning training programme to work through, look up on Google or Facebook

 

[The_Dappled_One.]

Oh right thankyou

 

[atlantis]

Straightness training?

I use straightness training for exactly this. There is loads of free stuff online ebooks etc. It's made a massive difference to my mare.

 

[DappleGreyDaydreamer]

I'm having the exact same problem with my youngster. I think it was my fault, when I bought him his canter was really weak on the left, so we did a lot of work on his left rein, and he lost muscles on the right so now he struggles to bend on the right rein.


I've been doing lots of carrot stretches, both in the stable and whilst mounted, and making sure I ride a lot of circles even though he struggles. Been lunging him in walk/slow trot on just a lead rope too (for a short time only), so the circle is smaller and tougher for him to work. This has been the plan for the last fortnight and he has improved beyond recognition already!

Good luck