How to progress. Help. ?

Laddy

Laddy

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Any advice would be really appreciated. I have a lovely chestnut mare. She really is so sweet and a middle age crisis buy in 2017. Brought unbroken she has fulfilled a dream of backing a young horse. But we sadly have not progressed beyond Prelim very well due to my age?(62)and lack of experience in dressage. I have a dispensation for looped reins but I think this has created contacted issues recently. She has very good paces and a lovely walk and I have fantastic help, but even so we are very slow to progress so I think it’s probably down to me.
Her main problem is tension.
6 months ago we were really improving and I felt her really sitting more behind and her medium trot appearing. But lately she’s been so tense,quite argumentative and very hard to slow down.She tends to do everything at 100 miles an hour but doing lots of transitions just really frustrates her more. When she relaxes and switches off she’s lovely,but I’m slightly losing heart. I love her dearly but would love to just progress a little bit more. She’s more than capable but how do I get her to relax in the school. Transitions, long and low, circles to slow etc just don’t really work for her at the moment. She healthy and back, teeth etc fine.
 

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Laddy said:
Any advice would be really appreciated. I have a lovely chestnut mare. She really is so sweet and a middle age crisis buy in 2017. Brought unbroken she has fulfilled a dream of backing a young horse. But we sadly have not progressed beyond Prelim very well due to my age?(62)and lack of experience in dressage. I have a dispensation for looped reins but I think this has created contacted issues recently. She has very good paces and a lovely walk and I have fantastic help, but even so we are very slow to progress so I think it’s probably down to me.
Her main problem is tension.
6 months ago we were really improving and I felt her really sitting more behind and her medium trot appearing. But lately she’s been so tense,quite argumentative and very hard to slow down.She tends to do everything at 100 miles an hour but doing lots of transitions just really frustrates her more. When she relaxes and switches off she’s lovely,but I’m slightly losing heart. I love her dearly but would love to just progress a little bit more. She’s more than capable but how do I get her to relax in the school. Transitions, long and low, circles to slow etc just don’t really work for her at the moment. She healthy and back, teeth etc fine.
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I am drawn to the reins, I would say the loops are making them too short. You have straightened your arms and are tilting forward to accommodate her.

Can the loops be moved 4" back?

Once she is working in a more advanced frame, they may need moving again, but I think they are too short for now.

I would agree with YCBM that the saddle balance looks off too.
 
Goldenstar said:
What else does she do except flat work training .
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Hi we do pole work a little long reining and hacking out. She can be quite reactive out hacking or total dear. I try to make school work fun and engaging. She sounds like a typical chestnut mare but she’s really not. She’s quite low down in the pecking order in my small herd.
 
Red-1 said:
I am drawn to the reins, I would say the loops are making them too short. You have straightened your arms and are tilting forward to accommodate her.

Can the loops be moved 4" back?

Once she is working in a more advanced frame, they may need moving again, but I think they are too short for now.

I would agree with YCBM that the saddle balance looks off too.
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Hi yes reins can be altered. In fact I’m always fiddling with them to try and get the right feel. They do tend to fix your hands, horrid things. Eg the Saddle, I think it’s probably the picture as it’s recently beechecked my by my lovely Sadler
 
Laddy said:
it’s recently beechecked my by my lovely Sadler
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Sadly that's not necessarily a guarantee. Can you get a second opinion, or take a photo of her stood up side on on a flat surface? If it isn't just the photos, I'm afraid I've seen that kind of fitting a lot over the years by some theoretically very qualified and experienced people. Fitted to clear the wither on a narrow withered horse, when what's actually needed is often a wider fit with a different shaped head. In a sensitive horse, it can cause all sorts of issues.

If it's genuinely a good fit in front, then you could try a back riser to bring it level.
.
 
I would always look at tack first too. I'm pretty happy with my mare's tack (fitted as above - wide with a good layer of padding at the front) but she had me about at my wit's end in the school - she wasn't doing anything daft but just paying attention to absolutely anything but me. We would do the whole school as a banana on both reins while she looked/spooked at what was outside it. Most days we couldn't get to the A or C ends at all and ended up on a stupid circle in the middle. I've not used supplements before but a friend recommended Sassy Mare so I started that and it took her down a notch or so but still not properly relaxed. I carried on for a while, starting to think that I just wasn't up to riding her, then decided to try something else before I lost the will to ride her at all. I'm using Nupafeed MAH now and, fingers crossed, it seems to be working. She's been on it for about two months and is much more responsive in the school, we can get to the ends and into the corners and I'm starting to look forwards to riding her again.
 
It’s hard to tell from the picture but it looks like the mare is built very uphill and that makes the saddle thing difficult, I too would try a rear raiser or padded right through on the basis of those pictures these no way I would pad in front only
I am your age I have younger riders who work my horses regularly , it allows them to do things that I now won’t do it makes a huge difference to the horses .
Thats my advice get someone else to ride her on a regular basis .
Perhaps get her taught to jump.
But you have to accept a hot horse is a hot horse .
 
Goldenstar said:
It’s hard to tell from the picture but it looks like the mare is built very uphill and that makes the saddle thing difficult, I too would try a rear raiser or padded right through on the basis of those pictures these no way I would pad in front only
I am your age I have younger riders who work my horses regularly , it allows them to do things that I now won’t do it makes a huge difference to the horses .
Thats my advice get someone else to ride her on a regular basis .
Perhaps get her taught to jump.
But you have to accept a hot horse is a hot horse .
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Thank you. I will look into a riser. I would love to find a young rider. I wouldn’t mind somebody else competing her. She goes lovely for my trainer who has the softest hands and strongest legs! But he has super horses to compete. I’ve had her since a 3yr. So even with the ups and downs she’s going nowhere.
 
ycbm said:
Sadly that's not necessarily a guarantee. Can you get a second opinion, or take a photo of her stood up side on on a flat surface? If it isn't just the photos, I'm afraid I've seen that kind of fitting a lot over the years by some theoretically very qualified and experienced people. Fitted to clear the wither on a narrow withered horse, when what's actually needed is often a wider fit with a different shaped head. In a sensitive horse, it can cause all sorts of issues.

If it's genuinely a good fit in front, then you could try a back riser to bring it level.
.
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Hi managed to find this picture.
 

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In my experience with a hot, dressage inclined chestnut mare, more ‘fun’ for them = a calmer rider for you. When I was pregnant and less willing to take risks, I had a teenage girl do the cantering, faster hacking and jumping that my mare needed to keep her sane. Worked perfectly, as I got to ride a lovely calm mare and the teenager had lots of fun.
 
I had a hot chestnut mare when I was in my 50's. I combined Long Distance with the dressage. Your horse is lovely looking!
 
As someone who has one of the hottest mares in existence, transitions make them 100% worse!

What you need is to get her to allow you to put your leg on. Lots of 10m circles switching directions going all over the school so she can't anticipate. Leg yields and shoulder in. Once you can get your leg on you can do transitions.
 
shortstuff99 said:
As someone who has one of the hottest mares in existence, transitions make them 100% worse!

What you need is to get her to allow you to put your leg on. Lots of 10m circles switching directions going all over the school so she can't anticipate. Leg yields and shoulder in. Once you can get your leg on you can do transitions.
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Yes lately transitions really make her worse. I’ll give the 10m circles a try. Thank you.
 
Laddy said:
Thank you. I will look into a riser. I would love to find a young rider. I wouldn’t mind somebody else competing her. She goes lovely for my trainer who has the softest hands and strongest legs! But he has super horses to compete. I’ve had her since a 3yr. So even with the ups and downs she’s going nowhere.
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Ask your trainer he may know someone or hear of someone perhaps someone whose own horse is off work something like that .
Some horses like being very busy and change as a result .
 
I’d be having an honest chat with your trainer. Annual planning if usually done over a pub dinner at about this time of year..! Be clear with your aims and see what they suggest you do to get there. That does mean you need someone you trust, I use a mish mash of two and my own ideas, but making the goals work style targets that you can clearly tick off and having everyone on board makes it clear. If they don’t think the mare can do it, or she needs professional work to get there, then you know where you’re at. The planning involves what we want from the vets, and then their input at the annual MOT. It might seem like overkill but it’s the way I work even for my can barely trot gypsy 63% at intro pony.
 
You both look very smart. I agree, I’d do a tack check and assess if anything has changed lately eg food, turnout. Does she get physio, is she up to date with teeth etc. Looped reins, can you have loops in a few places so you have options? Para rider that I know has 3 loops on her reins.

If all else is in good working order, I’d query if the lessons/current trainer are working for you, do a goal setting session, and think about having someone else/trainer school her for you. That’s how I get my horses schooled beyond my level, my trainer rides them - initially it was weekly and now it’s every 2 weeks. But it’s important that it’s a trainer who trains them for you, not how they might like the horse to go. Hard to explain but that’s what my trainer explained to me, she thinks about how I ride and what I want to do, and trains for that.
 
Am I right that she is now 8?
20 m circles in trot and you slowly leg yield in then slowly leg yield out, half pirouettes at walk then trot, lots of lateral work to make her sit, slow the canter by leg yielding towards the center and the back, then 20 m circles in canter, haunches out on the circle on trot, etc... You need to be able to move the shoulders and the haunches individually.
Could the saddle be too far forward in the first pictures?
 
Palindrome said:
Am I right that she is now 8?
20 m circles in trot and you slowly leg yield in then slowly leg yield out, half pirouettes at walk then trot, lots of lateral work to make her sit, slow the canter by leg yielding towards the center and the back, then 20 m circles in canter, haunches out on the circle on trot, etc... You need to be able to move the shoulders and the haunches individually.
Could the saddle be too far forward in the first pictures?
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Curious. How do you do a half pirouette at trot please?
 
Cortez said:
Curious. How do you do a half pirouette at trot please?
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The horse is incurved in the direction of movement and you shorten the trot to get a very tight circle/half circle with the shoulders that move more than the hind. Possibly not textbook at all, i don't know. I used to ride a draft horse that was very heavy on his shoulder so I did tonnes of pirouettes with him, first in walk but then he got good at doing them in trot too. I didn't dare try in canter. He was also a vaulting horse so had a good canter but it did feel a bit like we were going in battle.
I used the wall to do the half pirouettes at first.

You don't do that schooling with yours?
 
Lovely type of horse! I disagree with the loops making the reins too short. The picture is in walk and I would expect in trot and canter the rein length is fine. Have you any trot / canter pics? I haven't used reins like that although tempted as I do tend to let mine slip but I have no reason for a compensation so there is no point using something at home that I can't use at competition.
 
Palindrome said:
The horse is incurved in the direction of movement and you shorten the trot to get a very tight circle/half circle with the shoulders that move more than the hind. Possibly not textbook at all, i don't know. I used to ride a draft horse that was very heavy on his shoulder so I did tonnes of pirouettes with him, first in walk but then he got good at doing them in trot too. I didn't dare try in canter. He was also a vaulting horse so had a good canter but it did feel a bit like we were going in battle.
I used the wall to do the half pirouettes at first.

You don't do that schooling with yours?
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Ah; what you are describing is a trot volte. The only way to do an actual pirouette in trot is by turning in piaffe, (which is possible, but only with a very advanced horse).
 
ycbm said:
That does look reasonable, how long ago is that from?

She has a lovely short back for a mare (and she's a very nice mare!) Is your fitter sure it doesn't sit past her last rib?
.
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Hi taken this summer. The saddle was made for her and me. So I would hope so.
 
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