horse overbent

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Cassy

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My horse is quite a heavy girl and I am having problems getting her to work properly. She leans on my hands and has recently started to overbend. When she does this there is nothing I can do to bring her back up. I have started having lessons and my instructor insists on short reins which is not helping the situation. I have tried transitions up and down and half halts but nothing seems to help. Her canter is very unbalanced and very downhill. The only times I can feel her lighten up is when we ride over trot poles. Any suggestion please. She is 10.
 
What bit is she in? I find a loose ring mixed metal double jointed snaffle with a lozenge works really well with this sort of behaviour. It stops them leaning as they simply can't take a hold on the bit as it keeps moving on the rings and aids self carriage.
 
My mare was very heavy on the forehand and would become overbent whether reins were long or short. The length of the rein (for me anyway) just dectated whether she was over bent low or high.
In my case my mare was a little shut down behind so we've sharpenned her up alot. Spend time with very little contact getting her to move quickly off your leg (quick responce not speed). Once she's moving of your leg I did alot of transitions in the pace moving her up and down a gear or two. We've now moved on to lateral work to get her to engage her back end. We do alot of leg yielding on a circle as well as shoulder in. One nice little exercise has been hairpin loops back to track then leg yield down the track. This seems to have brought her up in the front alot. She now feels like she is pushing from behind rather theb dragging from the front.
Hope this helps
 
Thanks for those suggestions. I ride her in a french link snaffle. I am not sure my instructor is helping us to improve as she insists on me taking up a short contact, the ides being that I work her into that contact but all it seems to be achieving is a very "heavy in the hand horse". Not sure how to proceed.
 
Cassy said:
Thanks for those suggestions. I ride her in a french link snaffle. I am not sure my instructor is helping us to improve as she insists on me taking up a short contact, the ides being that I work her into that contact but all it seems to be achieving is a very "heavy in the hand horse". Not sure how to proceed.
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I would find a new instructor. This one is just encouraging your horse to lean on your hands.
 
When I bought my gelding he was awful for this, I couldn't school very long as I thought my arms would fall off. Everyone kept telling me to put him in a French link (was in a lozenge) but I did the opposite and put him in an eggbutt mullen mouth- took pressure off the tongue and then rode with loose reins so he had nothing to lean on. I took up the contact gradually and if he tucked in behind I took the contact away from him by lengthening the reins, I got him stretching out his nose a bit and after a few sessions he was working much better - he did keep tucking back until he was muscled up enough to support himself and now he always works on the vertical or very slightly in front, never tucks back behind :) and nice and light on my arms too. I lunged him a lot in an equi ami to build him up so he could carry himself, she may just be physically incapable at the moment but I advise against short reins !
 
Hoof_Prints said:
When I bought my gelding he was awful for this, I couldn't school very long as I thought my arms would fall off. Everyone kept telling me to put him in a French link (was in a lozenge) but I did the opposite and put him in an eggbutt mullen mouth- took pressure off the tongue and then rode with loose reins so he had nothing to lean on. I took up the contact gradually and if he tucked in behind I took the contact away from him by lengthening the reins, I got him stretching out his nose a bit and after a few sessions he was working much better - he did keep tucking back until he was muscled up enough to support himself and now he always works on the vertical or very slightly in front, never tucks back behind :) and nice and light on my arms too. I lunged him a lot in an equi ami to build him up so he could carry himself, she may just be physically incapable at the moment but I advise against short reins !
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I have to try this! Sadly when my mare was trained for harness racing they taught her to lean on the bit for balance. In the school she puts her head down and leans on the bit and expects me to hold her up. I put her in a loose ring french link and it just made her lean lower and longer and almost fall over herself when she loses her grip. I've been making extremely slow progress trying to get her off my hands and carry herself, but something tells me it might be time to try a new bit.
 
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I'm encouraging stretching in an outline with my young mare who struggles with left bend and will lean on that side. If she leans on that rein she gets a short and quick tug, NoNo sort of thing then a quick release as she comes of the rein as a reward for carrying herself. She is in a mullen mouth snaffle as she doesn't seem to like linked bits.
 
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