having any kind of control? possible?

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lerhodes

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Hi :)

So.. new horse has been here for a few months now and it is all going downhill. despite a few good results SJing, i have really been struggling and find riding a chore. She has huge potential. getting there is a near impossible i think.

She is a big strong WB mare, who arrived as a snaffle mouthed know it all aledgedly.. however she now appears to be an unschooled, green jumper, sensitive mouthed, strong resistant mare.. so it must be my riding right? or was it just a massive con from the dealer..

Some dressage instructors have told me she is well schooled if you ask her properly. however right now she is leaning (did before though), but now opening her mouth, throwing head around. rearing leapy things in canter when i have to take strong contact to ask for any downward or collection or anything other than the grand national training we appear to be doing. (before you ask all dental, back and saddle have been checked!)

same kind of the jumping. other than turning leads to an even more exaggerated resistance and we cannot get or stay straight into a fence.

So any exercises. help? please :(

i need to get her listening to me, and i need to get her working more correctly from behind. i cant ride on into contact due to above and also she doesnt understand legs dont mean running faster. so trying to do leg yield in walk or trot, or even turn on forehand leads to mini rears or general resistance and general FAILURE.

Any plans would be amazing if you could help.. such as stay in walk until you can do such and such, only progress to trot if.. do this if this happens.. only canter when this and this is... but i realise it may take a bit of time so dont worry if you cant help i understand

please help if you can. i feel like S. and i really like her as a person (or should i say horse) and dont want to give up on her..

thanks for getting this far.. its funny i thought writing this all done to someone might make me feel better but i really dont.. :(

thanks again x
 
I wouldn't really like to comment, not knowing or seeing the horse, but a good instructor would be the best person to advise you.

A couple of things which may/may not be helpful;

Does she have variation in her work (ie hacking one day, lunging the next, then a schooling session the following day, etc)? I've known several horses who went backwards and sour because all they did was dressage and schooling in the menage every day and nothing else.

This might also seem really random and strange, but is the surface of your menage OK? I only ask because it's been so dry this year, a lot of sand schools are riding horrendously, and my horse is hating the surface of ours at the moment.
 
Quote A couple of things which may/may not be helpful;

Does she have variation in her work (ie hacking one day, lunging the next, then a schooling session the following day, etc)? I've known several horses who went backwards and sour because all they did was dressage and schooling in the menage every day and nothing else. Quote

This is what I was thinking!
 
Yes lots of variation, she was bought as a sjer, so couple days hacking, some days schooling only, grid and polework, riding in field. Same behaviour in all to different extent, it gets worse more exciting work she is doing.

Yes going to ask instructor to get on her. re. exercises, everyone is telling me different things at the moment so unsure which way to go, was just hoping for anyone with experiance in a horse similar to mine to say what helped them.

thanks for getting back to me

x
 
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