Maia
Well-Known Member
Have aquired a 6YO about 2 months ago who has done relatively little - loads of hacking and some PC/RC stuff and some "schooling". Problem is he is totally dead to the leg and I get the impression has got away with doing things in his own time and his own rate for far too long.
Wondered how much of the issue is me so got a mate to video me riding my own horses, her horse and this one and I have now spotted an additional problem...
On my own and my mates horses they are off my leg so I only need to ask once and I get a response. Consequently I have a good contact, stable leg, am sitting up and sat on my seat correctly.
On this new boy it all goes hideously wrong (though is OK out hacking incidently according to my friend). In the video the horse simply ignores my aids first and second time of asking, resulting in a wallop/growl/boot which then gets the desired response and if not continues to get an increasingly hard wallop/growl/boot until I get what I ask for followed by praise. So that is problem one (which no amount of transitions seems to be helping with!).
Then, because the horse isn't forward and infront of my leg I am having to remind him to stay in gear I have put him in every 3-4 strides as he is always trying to slow back to walk. My riding ends up going completely to pot and and on the vids I fall into the horrendous trap of sh*gging the saddle, tipping onto the front of my pelvis and my lower leg coming up and back as I struggle to boot the damned thing hard enough and because I am having to use the stick a lot too my contact is also becoming rather hideous to look at - you can also see in the vids that once going forward I have the most pathetic of contacts for fear that the slightest reason to slow down (pressure on the reins) and the horse will do just that.
On my horses and even my mates horse which can be bone idle I do none of the above - I just struggle to get this horse forward and fall into a viscous trap of doing anything to get it to move at the expense of my own riding, which I'm sure is probably having a reverse effect to the one I want! I feel like I am at a RS on the most dead to the leg cob imagineable, not on a smart young TB!
What do I do? Horse has had everything checked, double checked and checked again - he is just a lazy sod that has got away with doing things his way for far too long. Have tried spurs with nothing but resistance and tbh, with some of the things my legs are doing I'm not sure they are a good idea anyway.
Have also tried millions of transitions, having someone on ground armed with lunge whip (even tried lunge whip with plastic carrier strapped to the end) polework, working with other horses in the arena, boxing to another arena and still no luck. Hacking he is much better and although not as infront of my leg as I'd like the damned thing is atleast forward!
HELP!!
Wondered how much of the issue is me so got a mate to video me riding my own horses, her horse and this one and I have now spotted an additional problem...
On my own and my mates horses they are off my leg so I only need to ask once and I get a response. Consequently I have a good contact, stable leg, am sitting up and sat on my seat correctly.
On this new boy it all goes hideously wrong (though is OK out hacking incidently according to my friend). In the video the horse simply ignores my aids first and second time of asking, resulting in a wallop/growl/boot which then gets the desired response and if not continues to get an increasingly hard wallop/growl/boot until I get what I ask for followed by praise. So that is problem one (which no amount of transitions seems to be helping with!).
Then, because the horse isn't forward and infront of my leg I am having to remind him to stay in gear I have put him in every 3-4 strides as he is always trying to slow back to walk. My riding ends up going completely to pot and and on the vids I fall into the horrendous trap of sh*gging the saddle, tipping onto the front of my pelvis and my lower leg coming up and back as I struggle to boot the damned thing hard enough and because I am having to use the stick a lot too my contact is also becoming rather hideous to look at - you can also see in the vids that once going forward I have the most pathetic of contacts for fear that the slightest reason to slow down (pressure on the reins) and the horse will do just that.
On my horses and even my mates horse which can be bone idle I do none of the above - I just struggle to get this horse forward and fall into a viscous trap of doing anything to get it to move at the expense of my own riding, which I'm sure is probably having a reverse effect to the one I want! I feel like I am at a RS on the most dead to the leg cob imagineable, not on a smart young TB!
What do I do? Horse has had everything checked, double checked and checked again - he is just a lazy sod that has got away with doing things his way for far too long. Have tried spurs with nothing but resistance and tbh, with some of the things my legs are doing I'm not sure they are a good idea anyway.
Have also tried millions of transitions, having someone on ground armed with lunge whip (even tried lunge whip with plastic carrier strapped to the end) polework, working with other horses in the arena, boxing to another arena and still no luck. Hacking he is much better and although not as infront of my leg as I'd like the damned thing is atleast forward!
HELP!!
