Hormonal Filly
Well-Known Member
My 6yr old Welsh D that I've had him 3 years now since a unbacked 3 year old. Backed him all myself, he was very easy to do and hes a real saint bar the cheeky welsh personality. He moves more like a warmblood and a finer D, not fat or chunky. Hes had a easy start and we've started doing more, done a few unaffiliated dressage tests, intro and prelim, hes not scored below 68% and placed in every test to my surprise.
He has always struggled with left canter and still does, in my test a few weeks back I could feel how difficult it was and he nearly fell into trot a few times. He tries to twist right and lead with the wrong leg, then rushes once hes on the correct lead. Hes also always been quite lazy off the leg, until hes hacking or on a funride hes the opposite.
We have had lessons and one instructor said he is hoys quality if we worked hard enough and another said he could be a cracking dressage horse with his paces.
I had a (top recommended vet) physiotherapist out 2 weeks ago and she said what a lovely horse he was, she found one (apparently minor) sore spot on his right SI area and said how nice he moved. She did note he has very narrow legs for his body size which is common with Welshes, that and the fact he leg rests could signs to hock arthritis. It has played on my mind a little if I'm honest.
Anyway.. we attended a group jump lesson Sunday. Arena surface wasn't great so can understand it wasn't easy for him but he super struggled with left canter. Kept picking up right lead then twisting his head and cutting the corner, then he'd randomly stop and just stand there (?!) We had a small course which consisted of jump, turn right to jump then turn left left to another jump. The left turns he really really struggled with. He jumped well, he was just hard work to ride and didn't feel great. Instructor said he moved like a 18.2 struggling to take the bends but hes only 15.1.. and the right canter he finds much easier. There was a old 16h chunky cob there who didn't struggle one bit.
I now can't work out if hes just immature and green (he is a little green but surely not green enough to struggle so much with left canter?) or somethings wrong. We do trotting poles and carrot stretches twice a day which hes excellent at. He got insured with NFU a couple of months ago as started doing more dressage.
Thank you for any advice
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He has always struggled with left canter and still does, in my test a few weeks back I could feel how difficult it was and he nearly fell into trot a few times. He tries to twist right and lead with the wrong leg, then rushes once hes on the correct lead. Hes also always been quite lazy off the leg, until hes hacking or on a funride hes the opposite.
We have had lessons and one instructor said he is hoys quality if we worked hard enough and another said he could be a cracking dressage horse with his paces.
I had a (top recommended vet) physiotherapist out 2 weeks ago and she said what a lovely horse he was, she found one (apparently minor) sore spot on his right SI area and said how nice he moved. She did note he has very narrow legs for his body size which is common with Welshes, that and the fact he leg rests could signs to hock arthritis. It has played on my mind a little if I'm honest.
Anyway.. we attended a group jump lesson Sunday. Arena surface wasn't great so can understand it wasn't easy for him but he super struggled with left canter. Kept picking up right lead then twisting his head and cutting the corner, then he'd randomly stop and just stand there (?!) We had a small course which consisted of jump, turn right to jump then turn left left to another jump. The left turns he really really struggled with. He jumped well, he was just hard work to ride and didn't feel great. Instructor said he moved like a 18.2 struggling to take the bends but hes only 15.1.. and the right canter he finds much easier. There was a old 16h chunky cob there who didn't struggle one bit.
I now can't work out if hes just immature and green (he is a little green but surely not green enough to struggle so much with left canter?) or somethings wrong. We do trotting poles and carrot stretches twice a day which hes excellent at. He got insured with NFU a couple of months ago as started doing more dressage.
Thank you for any advice
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