Horse bends to the outside on left rein

[Cassy]

This is a recurring problem. My 12 year old chunky mare seems to be doing this on a regular basis. I have had her back, saddle and teeth checked. She is coming back into work after a winter off. She takes no notice of my inside leg asking her to bend. I have tried lots of different exercises but to no avail. Can anyone suggest some exercises or reasons why this is happening. My daughter after watching from the ground says it is an evasion.

 

[Casey76]

This is a recurring problem. My 12 year old chunky mare seems to be doing this on a regular basis. I have had her back, saddle and teeth checked. She is coming back into work after a winter off. She takes no notice of my inside leg asking her to bend. I have tried lots of different exercises but to no avail. Can anyone suggest some exercises or reasons why this is happening. My daughter after watching from the ground says it is an evasion.

Have you had a whole body check by a physio or osteopath? If she is out at the poll she will find it difficult to bend, and probably won't be picked up if you just have the back checked.

Have you checked her lateral flexibility with carrot stretches? Most horses are more one sided than others, but if there is a distinct lack of flexibility to one side she could probably benefit from massage or physiotherapy.

 

[be positive]

It can be a sign that they are avoiding taking weight or pushing through with the inside hind, far easier to bend away than step under properly, a good physio should have picked up any unevenness and referred back to the vet but if you only had a "back person" who did not look at the whole horse, including watching it move it may well have been missed, get the vet out to check as it is unlikely to be a simple evasion technique if she is bending and working well on the other rein although sometimes it is caused by the rider so worth getting your instructor to look at you to check you are sitting completely level.

 

[lucky7]

My cob did this, went down lots of routes and took a while to find the problem, turned out to be a torn patilier ligament in her stifle - was picked up on an ultra sound scan, she had surgery and is now sound, I would say have a chat with the vert to rule lameness out, her lameness was very very discreet.

 

[Pinkvboots]

It can be a sign that they are avoiding taking weight or pushing through with the inside hind, far easier to bend away than step under properly, a good physio should have picked up any unevenness and referred back to the vet but if you only had a "back person" who did not look at the whole horse, including watching it move it may well have been missed, get the vet out to check as it is unlikely to be a simple evasion technique if she is bending and working well on the other rein although sometimes it is caused by the rider so worth getting your instructor to look at you to check you are sitting completely level.

I agree with this my horse started doing this and a few weeks later went lame on his nearside hind and had damaged his suspensory ligament, he may be very subtly lame which is very hard to see with an untrained eye.

 

[Cassy]

Thanks for the advice.