Help! Exercises to help straighten my horse/me!

[JenG88]

Hi, I wondered if anyone can help with exercises I can work on at home. My horse tends to over bend on the left rein and then I struggle to get him to bend on the right. When riding up the centre line he still tends to have his head turned to the left.

I have been practicing leg yielding to try and help get him straight but if anyone could give me tips or things to practice I would really appreciate it!

 

[nato]

Is it that you struggle to get him to bend to the right, or through his right side?

Whatever side he is struggling to bend, indicates a need to work on stretching out the opposite side and getting him to track up correctly with the opposite hind. If he struggles to bend right, the key is getting him to strengthen up his left side so he can stretch his left neck around, and also encouraging the left hind to step under him.

Things that can help are using cavaletti poles raised on one side, and you can also use these on a circle once he gets better at them. Turns on the forehand will aid with lightness. Spiralling circles using leg yields help to encourage him to use that inside hind. Consider a little bit of outside bend, straighten, and then return to inside bend again - helps to introduce the bend without overexerting him.

I would also do things like carrot stretches to bring him right round either side and between his legs. Long and low work with some exaggerated right bend right around your leg and a loose outside contact on a circle will encourage him stretch out his neck on the left side (dont do it for too long, just in little bursts as they find it quite hard)

 

[Bernster]

Following with interest. Those exercises sound great Nato. Mine has similar issues falling out through the left shoulder.

I need to work on my horses straightness but also my own, as I'm twisting myself in response and, as always with horse, my natural reaction tends to be the wrong one as I'm making it worse! So OP if might also be good to establish if you are crooked and work on that too, on and off the horse.

 

[Marydoll]

I like to use a figure of 8 with Shoulder in on one circle, keep the bend and shoulder out on the other circle, ride it on both reins, then ride straight lines.
Centre line shoulder in right to x then ride straight a few strides then shoulder in left.
Shoulder in is your friend to straightness

 

[Simon Battram]

Hi, I wondered if anyone can help with exercises I can work on at home. My horse tends to over bend on the left rein and then I struggle to get him to bend on the right. When riding up the centre line he still tends to have his head turned to the left.

Every horse has a stiffer side and a softer side. I nickname it banana shape. They are all either left or right bananas. Yours sounds like a left banana. So this means the left hind is the weaker one, the left side of the body is the contracted side, left bend more easy right bend harder and is likely to fall onto the right shoulder.

Correct long and low work will help stretch both sides of the banana out and start with a looser more supple horse.

When going direction left as you approach a corner counter flex to the right and ride the corner in counter flexion. This softens the right contact, gets better guidance to the right shoulder and places the forehand in front of the haunches.

Or you can ride, in walk, a series of 10m circles down the long side. Ride the first one in normal bend, the next in counter bend and the third in normal bend again.

Ride a 20m circle, spiral in to a 10m circle and then leg yield back out. Then counter flex and spiral in in counter flex and then change to true flex and leg yield out.

On the right rein ride leg yield head to wall to drive that weaker left hind under the body.
Hope this helps,
Simon

 

[Kikke]

Lots of shoulder in (true shoulder in not quarters out)