Heavy on one rein

madhector

madhector

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www.darlingdressage.co.uk
Please could someone give me some good exercises for getting the Jerry monster working in an even contact. He is really heavy in my right rein, I think this may be due to me having broken my right leg and it being weaker, as he wasn't like it before I broke it.

He isn't allowed to do circles yet, just hacking, but I have to hack him out on a contact otherwise he fools around, so figured I may as well correct this problem now (or at least attempt too
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) I have tried flexing him to the right and asking for a little bit of shoulder in, which seems to help, but any other ideas welcome

Thanks
 
Mine has got heavier on left rein, but have dnetist tomorrow to see if prob there - have you checked his teeth recently (prob stupid question!?!?!)
 
flex him a little left in walk and just keep on lightening the right rein until he takes an acceptable contact on the left rein and is soft on the right rein. it took me about 4 sessions to teach my new mare that the left rein wasn't there for her to prop herself up with, thanks very much... but the penny's dropped now.
i think it's more likely to be because you're right handed (unless you're not, in which case i look like a wally!) than because your right leg is weak. most horses learn to lean on the rider's dominant hand...
 
no worries... i'm left handed, so i tend to notice it even more when i get on a strange horse that automatically assumes i'll be stronger in my right...
hope it works. it took my mare about 4 x 20 min sessions until she understood.
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when i smashed my leg up i could barely use it at after and then a clver instructor told me to use the good leg LESS rather than try to use the bad one more. seeif that helps. also hold the reins upside down i.e. so they feed through the top of your hand under the thumb first and the lose bit is between your little nd ring fingers. it is a god excercise to make sure YOUR contact is even and does stoop you holding on more to one side inadvertently x
 
Its not so much the leg that you need to concentrate on but the seat and your hips. The dominant side of your body will be 'tight ' compared to your less' handed'side, which is often 'loose'. This effects how you sit and the balance that you have in the seat. Try and imagine the top of the horse like a table top that has to stay level right to left/ left to right, in all work. Straight lines and turns. Looking after this balance will enable your horse to maintain balance in the hind leg. In the walk, where you have momentum and impulsion but no moment of suspension it is really important to think of each beat of the four having the same amount of time on the floor.With your hips imagine that you are extending the distance between the front of his saddle and the whithers with the poll as the highest point and also going away from you but not by driving down in the back but that the saddle is made of glass and you are working forward hips to hands. The feel in your hand tells you about the strong and weak side of your horse. The hand with the more positive contact is your horses 'push' side and he drives off the ground more on this side. The right side does not take as much time on the floor and does not like to stay on the ground and tends to be 'quicker'. You need to quicken the slow strong side and get the quick weak side to take more time on the ground. This is where the use of the leg/ seat/core to the recieving hand comes in. By making sure your shoulders stay wide [ think of the shoulder blades melting down the spine] with your hips opening so that you rest evenly on the 3 points of your seat and the legs able to hang out of the hips and into the stirrups.The elbows heavey and then allow your hand to 'float 'up on a flexible elbow as if you have hold of the strings of two helium ballons This allows you the best opportunity to feel this balance and recognise your own strong/weak side and then you will be able to understand what your horse needs from you to help him develope the eveness of weight carring in the hind legs so that a touch of your leg at the girth communicates dirrectly with his hindleg on that side.The seat and leg in the right staying a little down for a fraction longer as most riders that are right handed find opening the hip and staying down in the knee on the right difficult [Recognise the shoulder on this side, it will tend to stay too close to the ear and to curl] By staying on this side a little longer and lightenting the left you will help with the rebalance in the hindleg.
This difference in the connection is a symptom of this curent uneveness in the 'carrying ability' of the hind legs at the moment. This really is what 'straightness' is and what we work on in dressage everyday... creating the ambi-dextrous horse!! We need to be ambi-dextrous riders!!
Sorry this is long but it is important as this balance inthe seat will increase you ability to affect reactions in your horse and is the 'building blocks' of all your work.
 
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