Inhand Exercises

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Sophiecollins11

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I am aiming to Go county with my traditional cob next year after having a very successful season this year ridden showing.
However he is not vey good in hand...
He is very well behaved and is happy to stand square in the line up and in front of the judge, but he has no precence and doesn't stand out.
Sometimes I struggle to get him into trot he's so lazy and his walk is more of a plod! and he just doesn't look special!
Any tips or exercises to help him show off a bit more that I can do at home?
 
I have very very little showing experience, but wanted to give you some hope: in Endurance, we have to trot up the horse at the beginning and end. His first time, my pony was so slow someone had to chase him! Then he went through a phase of being insanely excited and leaping about. But this year, he's won "Best Presentation" for his trot-ups three times in a row. So there is hope! :D I'd say two things that can help with the trot-up: first, practice it, so that he knows what is expected (and that you mean business). Second, a fit horse that takes pleasure in movement will give a better trot-up, so get him out and about and happy to be moving. :)
 
Ok thank you! He used to do a lot of Inhand and didn't do that bad but since I have had him he's just been awful at it so I'm not sure whether it's something they did to him while they were practising as he gets very agitated when I practised it at my old yard (we kept him on the same yard his old owners had him) I havnt tried since I have moved yet but will give it a go :)
 
What do you mean by "agitated"? Does he leap around, or toss his head? Counter-intuitively, trotting up on a nice loose rope often leads to calmer trot-ups. And make sure to keep your own eyes on a target towards which you are trotting, not on the horse.
 
At the old yard he was just extremely lazy and would lunge at me when I asked him too move forward in any form :/ he was just really stuffy and grumpy but I heard that his old owners used to shake tins and cans and use lunge whips and all sorts to get him to move so I wasn't sure if that was related? I practised in a field yesterday and he was pretty good for him though still lazy but way better
 
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