horse insisting on walking on the right hand side of the road.

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Hi. My severn year old has started to try and walk on the right hand side of the road, and the more i try and correct him with hand and leg, the more he does it. This habit is becoming very annoying and dangerous, it also makes my left arm and right leg very tired. Any ideas on how to stop him.
 
could you try useing lateral work? move him over the whole of the road - if its quite and keep his mind off where he is going, slowly working towards the other side of the road
why is he doing this? not from a foreign country is he?
 
Do you have a school you can work him in? I wouldn't ride him out again until he will reliably move sideways away from your leg. It it dangerous to ride out on a road with a horse that ignores you. You could get help from an instructor or practise getting him to move over on the ground by poking him with your finger where your heel would go. Then get on and get someone else to do the same thing from the ground if he is still ignoring you.
 
Hi thanks for your idea, no he is irish and we have had for four years and he has only started doing this in the last few weeks. He is very good at thinking up new naughtey tricks to get out of work, this might be a new trick.
 
ChristmasSparkles said:
Have you had his teeth checked?
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^^this, if he has only just started doing it, also are you sitting centrally or perhaps has the saddle become a bit unbalanced to one side? Often they will drift sideways to try to step underneath a rider if the balance has changed.

My mare does this, always has done - I've been riding her for 10 years and she always prefers to walk on the right side :eek: I'm a paranoid owner so I know in her case it's not a straightness issue, it's just her. Good opportunity to practice lateral work :D
 
Have someone ride behind you and check that your saddle is square and that your spine is above his spine.

If you have even a small amount of weight into your right iron because you or/and your saddle are going to the right the horse will follow your weight. My saddle was way over the right and a photo from behind was the evidence, even though I didn't feel I was so far off centre.

My new cob, she is green and unbalanced, gave me the same problem as you are having. She had a tendency to look left, bulge through the right shoulder whilst the left shoulder shoved me and the saddle to the right. Like you I tried to correct the bend and use my right leg to ask her shoulders to the left all she did was lean on my leg. You probably have also noticed that one of your reins is much shorter than the other.

Lots of work, just in walk, in the school fixed the problem. Leg yield, shoulder fore, flexion etc. I has taken 4 months to get my horse straight and even now, especially if she gets tired, she will lose her straightness, but now she understands lateral aids I can square her up again. Obviously make sure your saddle fits, many horses have one shoulder that is larger than the other and they will compensate the pressure by going crooked.
 
my mare does this, she has a touch of athritus in her left knee and i think its more comfortable for her in the middle/right hand side.

I usually let her walk in the middle of "our" lane where its safe too but i know she'll move over as soon as asked. in fact she often moves as soon as she hears a car before ask her too!!
 
Horses that drive often won't walk on the left properly, but if he used to walk on the left then this probably isn't the issue.

I would be thinking about soundness issues. I have come across horses who struggle with camber due to soundness issues.
 
Mine has always wanted to walk on the right after damaging his sacro-iliac. We get a lot of practice leg yielding (sadly, our leg yield right to left is now superb, but since we don't get as much practice going left to right, that one still needs work :D).
 
When I moved to England from Belgium, my mare just couldn't walk on the left hand side. I ended up only going on roads with a pavement so she could walk on the right or just staying off roads completely :o

I forgave her as she was 20.
 
My mare always much preferred to walk on the right of any path. Interestingly, some years later she kicked up a fuss whenever I lunged her on the right rein. It came on quite suddenly. I then realised the reason for the lunging at least was because she couldn't see forwards with her left eye, only beside herself (and presumably behind). On the left rein she could see me with her left eye and where she was going with her right eye. I'm guessing that her eyesight had been failing for some time and walking on the right meant she could follow the hedge/fence more easily.
 
jennywren07 said:
my mare does this, she has a touch of athritus in her left knee and i think its more comfortable for her in the middle/right hand side.

Interesting you say this because an older horse of mine did this as just prior to being diagnosed with arthritis in his hocks - we had had him (and still have him I must add) for years and he was very well schooled so you could stop him walking to the right - but he developed a desire to do so. I think it was to do with the camber of the road - he must have found it uncomfortable to have his left hind lower (due to road camber) than his right. On treatment for his condition the symptom of hanging right has all but vanished - only see it occasionally if he is a little tired
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Can echo Blythe Spirit above.

My 17 year old TB started doing this earlier this year. He was found to have the beginnings of arthritis in both hocks as well as foot pain in the near fore. Both hocks were medicated and remedial shoeing was done in front and now he keeps to the left hand side of the road no problem!
 
Another one suggesting soundness issues. My boy likes to try to walk in the middle of the road where there is a camber. He was duagnosed with bilateral lameness in the coffin joints and has remedial shoeing...
 
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