Holding on the left side..

[Sali]

Hitting some LOVELY brick walls atm!
The silly numpty holds on the left rein, and crosses her jaw pretty much all the time even though I ride with a soft contact. She just doesn't 'do' letting go, she'll constantly try to block my left rein signals, unless I've made ourselves go rather dizzy doing lots of circles everytime she holds or crosses then she'll let go for one or two strides then she'll carry on. We don't do canter work at the moment, as her head flings up in the air, she grabs the bit and bomb round like a headless chicken on speed. I figured I'd try and get her trot work minus the fannying about before trying our canter work?
In the pelham doing flat, she goes lovely and soft, and only really 'holds' the bit if she's getting overly excited whilst jumping.

She's in a nue schuler loose ring french link snaffle for flatwork only(otherwise I'd be typing this whilst sitting on the moon!) and a straight bar rugby pelham for everything else.

Back, teeth, tack and what not are fine, and she's had alsorts of things done to her to see if it's any sort of physical problem but nothings come back an conclusive.

Currently our schooling sesh's are just trying to get her to relax and stretch down in walk/trot, and to help imrpove her balance.

Any ideas?

 

[kerilli]

patient repetition, just keep letting go of the left rein so she can't lean on it. boring, but will work eventually.

 

[Seahorse]

My horse used to do this all the time, every time I rode I would get really bad left arm ache!
I asked my trainer and he said it's because they are falling out through their right shoulder and to make sure your right rein is not longer than the left and not to ask for too much left bend.
Basically I shortened my right rein and he stopped doing it!!!

 

[kizzywiz]

Make sure you've got both hind legs, if he's heavy in one rein usually means one hind leg is trailing. Ride from inside leg to outside rein, & also outside leg to inside rein. Shoulder in & travers on a circle should help.

 

[Dutch]

it could also be that he has a sharp edge on a tooth or that your saddle isn't straight making him feel more one-sided.

Diana

 

[Seahorse]

Ha that'll teach me!

Axey was awful today and really leaning on my left hand, no matter what I did he wouldn't stop doing it

 

[Sali]

I found that working on her good rein, where she doesn't hold etc, and working large with an outside bend(with constant half halts), then straightening her up and changing rein really helped. We only done a quick 10 min sesh and by the end of it she was using her back end and working through. Was really chuffed!