How do u know a horse is on the fore hand

[thatsmygirl]

After reading queenbeas post I'm interested as to how you know a horse is on the forehand? And how do u correct this?

 

[Luci07]

A horse that leans on your hands or feels like its weight and movement is coming from the front would be deemed to be on the forehand. It's a long old process to lighten the horse and get it to move from behind and there a lot of ways to set this. Transitions and lots of them, not getting into a fight with the horse, different biting (not necessarily stronger) can all help

 

[be positive]

Most young horses will be on their forehand when starting out in their ridden work, they naturally carry more weight on the shoulders and the added weight of the rider will make this more obvious.
Training, building up muscles, getting them more balanced so the weight starts to be carried more on the hind legs, this all takes time to develop, many years if the horse is less athletic than ideal although any horse can improve for some it is far more difficult than others and they will really struggle to truly engage and become light and in self carriage.

 

[thatsmygirl]

My old mare is on the fore hand then, which is what I thought. Silly question or not I don't know but she suffers with ringbone in her hind legs ( 18 yr old) so do u think although its not correct it helps her with taking weight of her bad legs? Or am I just being stupid

 

[Pearlsasinger]

My old mare is on the fore hand then, which is what I thought. Silly question or not I don't know but she suffers with ringbone in her hind legs ( 18 yr old) so do u think although its not correct it helps her with taking weight of her bad legs? Or am I just being stupid

You certainly are not being stupid!

I would imagine that you are happy for her to keep herself as comfortable as possible, asking her to take more weight onto her quarters would do the opposite of that. TBH, the vast majority of horses that we see ridden out and about and at lower level shows are on the forehand. It takes a great deal of work, and a particular kind of horse to change the horse's natural way of going, which isn't to say that those of us with healthy horses shouldn't attempt to improve their self-carriage.

 

[thatsmygirl]

Thanks pearlsasinger, you had backed up what I'm thinking

 

[L&M]

When you feel like you are riding 'downhill' and the power is from the front, ie the horse is pulling itself along with its shoulders, rather than propelling itself from the hind quarters.