Horse drifting to left

[Slave2Magic]

Whilst schooling my mare earlier I noticed that she drifts to the left when Im asking her to work correctly. I am thinking that it is probably me that is using more right leg or dropping my hip but how do you find out? I was riding without stirrups at the time and feel balanced. We don't have a school at the moment so I can't do circles.

 

[spookypony]

I was going to suggest a mirror, but not having a school kinda puts a damper on that idea!

 

[Slave2Magic]

Yes it is rather awkward at the moment. I tend to school on the gallops so pretty much straight lines but we do have a 20m lunging pen if that would be any good?

 

[Spudlet]

Can you get someone to watch from the ground? Maybe even get an RI in to take a look, might be her, you or a combo of both but often you can see things from the ground that a rider can't easily feel.

 

[charlimouse]

At a large equestrian college near me they have a mechanical horse that is very good as it has sensors all over it telling you where your weight is, centre of gravity is, exactly where your legs are, if one is applying more pressure than the other, what your contact is like, whether it is even. You have a screen set up in front of you that shows you what the sensors are picking up at that exact moment, so you can correct faults straight away. The horse will even do passage, piaffe, half pass etc. Not quite a real horse I know, but maybe a session on one of those may just make you aware of amything you are doing that may be causing this problem. So maybe have a look on the internet and find your nearest mechanical horse!

 

[camilla4]

Does she do it with another rider or only with you?

 

[Slave2Magic]

There is only me that rides her so hard to tell. We have a mechanical horse quite near so may be an idea to book a lesson on it and see if I sit crooked.