EquiMaddie
Member
Hello everyone, I'd just like to start off by saying that I'm a new user here and I apoligize if I have put this in the wrong place!
I seem to be having an issue with my Welsh Section D mare. She is 8 years old since last month and I recently moved her to a new yard with an arena and better facilities, it's wonderful! Before this, she was living in a hilly field and also being ridden in it. Since it was on an incline I found it hard doing any groundwork so I stuck to jumping, and she ended up doing really well; leaping over things up to 1m 25, occasionally bareback! I didn't ever bother with her canter lead or diagonal since I was just focussing on getting her over the fence at that point, but now that I have access to an arena, a problem has risen.
Basically, shes fine in walk, lovely and active. Then I ask her to trot, which is where it all goes wrong. I will give her a simple squeeze and she immediately transitions from walk to trot which is good, but she then throws her head up and 'hops' as if she is lame. This can't be the issue as first of all, shes never been lame and second of all, there is nothing else to prove this. I check her hooves over everyday and they are in wonderful condition without a single chip. However, if I allow her to carry on hopping, she will hop all the way to the corner of the arena, slow down and go in to canter. This confuses me terribly. She used to have the opposite problem, where she had a MASSIVE stereotypical Welsh trot and a crappy, gallop/canter. I worked on it for a while and she managed to slow her canter down, but now her trot is basically non-existant.
I carried on riding her in the arena for a few days in a row and shes doing it everytime. At first when we warm up and the tension isn't there, it's all good. But as soon as she does a canter on either rein, thats all she wants to do. It's really causes us problems because I desperately need to work on our groundwork however she is continously 'hopping'. My trainers always tell me it is due to her wanting to canter, so they tell me to let her. Which is fair enough, but I can't just let her canter when shes meant to be trotting, in a dressage test for example.
My dad told me it is because of her being young, excited and having been moved to a new place. This is a reasonable answer, but she can be completely calm and STILL do it. If I slow her down, she will go from the trot/canter/hop to walk and will carry on if I ask her to speed up.
I've realised that recently she has been holding her head really high, and opening her mouth as if she is resisting the bit. Could this be it? I have her in a Dutch Gag and it's always on the first loop under the snaffle, so it's not too strong but still works as a gag. Despite the hopping being a problem, it does mean I can easily get a slow, collected canter but once I do, I can't come out of it.
I've done some research and apparently it could be her saddle, which I've thought about since she doesn't seem to behave like this in the field. She naturally has a flowing, Welsh trot and I'm really needing her to use that now that we are going to start doing dressage intros.
Any ideas? I'm going to try a flash on her today and see if she's resisting the bit, but I still don't see how that makes her hop around! Thanks everyone <3
I seem to be having an issue with my Welsh Section D mare. She is 8 years old since last month and I recently moved her to a new yard with an arena and better facilities, it's wonderful! Before this, she was living in a hilly field and also being ridden in it. Since it was on an incline I found it hard doing any groundwork so I stuck to jumping, and she ended up doing really well; leaping over things up to 1m 25, occasionally bareback! I didn't ever bother with her canter lead or diagonal since I was just focussing on getting her over the fence at that point, but now that I have access to an arena, a problem has risen.
Basically, shes fine in walk, lovely and active. Then I ask her to trot, which is where it all goes wrong. I will give her a simple squeeze and she immediately transitions from walk to trot which is good, but she then throws her head up and 'hops' as if she is lame. This can't be the issue as first of all, shes never been lame and second of all, there is nothing else to prove this. I check her hooves over everyday and they are in wonderful condition without a single chip. However, if I allow her to carry on hopping, she will hop all the way to the corner of the arena, slow down and go in to canter. This confuses me terribly. She used to have the opposite problem, where she had a MASSIVE stereotypical Welsh trot and a crappy, gallop/canter. I worked on it for a while and she managed to slow her canter down, but now her trot is basically non-existant.
I carried on riding her in the arena for a few days in a row and shes doing it everytime. At first when we warm up and the tension isn't there, it's all good. But as soon as she does a canter on either rein, thats all she wants to do. It's really causes us problems because I desperately need to work on our groundwork however she is continously 'hopping'. My trainers always tell me it is due to her wanting to canter, so they tell me to let her. Which is fair enough, but I can't just let her canter when shes meant to be trotting, in a dressage test for example.
My dad told me it is because of her being young, excited and having been moved to a new place. This is a reasonable answer, but she can be completely calm and STILL do it. If I slow her down, she will go from the trot/canter/hop to walk and will carry on if I ask her to speed up.
I've realised that recently she has been holding her head really high, and opening her mouth as if she is resisting the bit. Could this be it? I have her in a Dutch Gag and it's always on the first loop under the snaffle, so it's not too strong but still works as a gag. Despite the hopping being a problem, it does mean I can easily get a slow, collected canter but once I do, I can't come out of it.
I've done some research and apparently it could be her saddle, which I've thought about since she doesn't seem to behave like this in the field. She naturally has a flowing, Welsh trot and I'm really needing her to use that now that we are going to start doing dressage intros.
Any ideas? I'm going to try a flash on her today and see if she's resisting the bit, but I still don't see how that makes her hop around! Thanks everyone <3
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