Leg Yeilding now horse wont stop - advice?

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equitum

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Hi everyone,

Just looking for some advice as I'm pretty sure it's something I am doing wrong.

I have been schooling my horse over the past few weeks and its been going well. we've only just started regular work together after a break- he is quite fit as has been worked with other people.

This week I decided to add some leg yielding to the mix having only really started to master this manoeuvre myself with instruction.

He is a left bended horse and will leg yield with ease on this rein but finds it more difficult on the right. I have been practicing towards and away from the track he obviously prefers to head to the outside but will go the other way with some encouragement.

However, I am now finding that he is constantly trying to leg yield when I work him on the left rein even when I am not asking him.
He goes completely to the outside edge of the school so much that he is practically leaning on the wall!

I have tried working him off the track, using the whip in my outside hand, trying to make sure he is straight and not bending to the inside and even sitting to the outside. He is absolutely fine on the right rein and I am really trying to figure out what I am doing to cause this.

We are going to take a break from adding any more lateral work into our schooling and go back to the basics again and hack out more so he doesn't get bored but does anyone have any useful guidance on what I could try with him? Or perhaps some thoughts on what I may be dong wrong? Or even if he is doing something he shouldn't be?
 
You say it's as if he leans on the wall - my youngster used to use the fence of the school for balance - could he be unbalanced? I did a lot of work off the track, bending and transitions and now he is older and more balanced he doesn't do it anymore. Hacking helped us too :)

I may be barking up the wrong tree here but that was what my boys reason was :)
 
He has had a problem with balance before but he is so much better now. This problem has literally only started when we started leg yielding. It's almost like he is saying "hey mum look I can do it!" And now it's his new trick!

I don't feel he is falling out, I have tried to keep a good outside contact to catch him but any flexion towards the inside immediately sends him across to the outside of the school so I tried to just keep him straight and then find he is fighting and evading the contact by throwing his head up in the air.
 
If he is falling out though the shoulder, tap the stick on his shoulder on not behind the leg, my youngster did this for a few weeks until he mastered circles
 
It is because he is finding it easy to bend his neck to the left and drop through the outside aids, hence the resisting when you ask him to be straight, try flexing him to the right to gain real control before asking him to go straighter, when you want to start leg yielding again begin by moving away from the fence for a few steps, then go straight then leg yield again, never lose the control of his shoulders, if he starts to go without being asked move him forward and flex the opposite way.
 
This! ! QUOTE=Costypop;12045648]If he is falling out though the shoulder, tap the stick on his shoulder on not behind the leg, my youngster did this for a few weeks until he mastered circles[/QUOTE]
 
Thanks guys for the whip advice, I do use my whip on his shoulder usually anyway as he is very reluctant when it touches his bum - it can turn him into a bucking, rodeo nightmare, something must have happened in his past I imagine.

Be positive, thanks, I will try your tips during our next schooling session, hopefully it will make a difference. I know he knows what to do as up until now he has been working really well.
 
I think you have hit the nail on the head....what are you doing!
Check what your left leg is doing! I bet it's pressing firmly ( through thigh and calf) more than the other leg...even just slightly...this may also explain the left bend. Really think of taking the left leg off...totally lift it off the horse! And put more right leg on, moving it back slightly as if you we're going to perform a leg yield. If you feel you need to do a leg yield away from the right leg insisting for a right bend. But make sure you don't restrict the horse with you left leg/hand....so it can bend right!
 
This is usually a straightness issue
When you leg yield to the right aim to it with as little left bend as possible .
Be careful that you don't open the left hand when he falls out try to keep the outside right rien contact and the hands close together .
Now I will get told off for this but try thinking of keeping the outside rien against the neck this can help to increase the contact on the outside rien and control the sideways you could even pass the outside rien a little over the neck to correct .
This is a correction not the ' correct ' way to ride but it may help you.
Don't do to many steps one correct step is better than half a dozen incorrect ones .
All I think this is showing you is the horse is not accepting and understanding the
outside rien and it's role it regulating the staightness and direction of travel.
It's normal it's what the leg yield seeks to develop the role of outside aids
You are aiming for the horse to understand the outside rien is regulating the travel of the sideways .
I hope that helps I ' m a bit tired so hope it makes sense.
 
When you ask him to stop moving to the left bend him to the right. If necessary take a huge bend to the right initially(and if that's not enough ask him to leg yield the other way...) he's not listening so he is deciding when
Enough is enough I tend to keep the whip only as a 'quicker' aid and smacking the horse for this only tells him
He's wrong not what you want him to do. Taking the other bend moves his shoulders over so he can't continue to leg yield .
 
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