Looking for Suggestions to encourage better use of shoulders

[Laafet]

Hello, I know that you guys can come up with great ideas so I wanted to ask here. After long conversations with the vet and farrier about our shoeing woes (we have gone from 6 to 3 weeks) I am looking for ways to encourage Stormy to use her shoulders/front legs better. She is an ex racer and has historical knee issues. Initially she had made great strides forward with her training but her walk has got poor, she tracks up well but scuffs her front feet like Kevin the Teenager. Trot and canter is infinitely better but I do feel that it hard for her to power from behind and get her front legs out of the way. She has grown a huge amount recently, so I am sure that does not help. She was 15.2hh when I bought her and we sticked her at 16hh the other day. I have limited my expectations for the next month and she would definitely appreciate a month of more ground based work while she learns to use her growing body.

The vet is happy that we have not got anything major going on but instead that she would benefit from work on helping her to open her shoulders and lift her front end, taking weight behind more. She suggested that we back off the hacking as the ground has been so hard. She had had a similar problem with her ex racer and suggested loads of in hand work, spanish walk etc. I have no idea where to start on that.

I signed up to the TRT method a while ago and I have to be careful as some of the stuff does not suit her. But we are working our way along with that. I have an open approach to ground work in that I'd rather do what suits the horse. Her trust and focus is good when we get it right and even at liberty in the arena she will take cues off me.

So any ideas on good pole or inhand exercises we can do would be much appreciated. We don't have mega hills really round here so I can't use those to help. And I don't have transport so things like the water treadmill are out for now. Sorry for the ramble, I have done so many youngsters in the past but am woefully out of practice these days.

 

[spacefaer]

I've used lateral work ( shoulder in particularly - or even just shoulders fore to start with)
And raised poles in walk

 

[nikicb]

I would agree with the Spanish walk - I have introduced that in-hand to my mare for exactly the same reasons, as she is built a bit croup high. I am not sure where you are based, but I have in-hand lessons with Diane Thurnam-Baker and she is really good at getting all sorts of horses to use themselves better. She does clinics all over the country, so I am sure there would be one near you at some point.

 

[Goldenstar]

Walking diagonally across raised poles .
you just put them up round the school and walk the horse across the on a diagonal line .
Have a look at the book Posture and Performance it’s really good .

 

[teapot]

The humble basic square corners/riding a square exercise even in walk will help, which can then progress to diamonds.

 

[Wheels]

A good exercise is to ride diamonds or hexagons and, ask for outside bend and a steady walk then do neck rein turns on the corners rather than inside bend.

Shoulder in everywhere but especially on a circle.

To start spanish walk then teach the jambette first, theres a few youtube vids but you can basically lightly tap the side of the cannons or side of the forearm (depending on the horse) with a whip until the lift then progressively get them to stretch the leg forward and up. Once they have this sorted you can ask to walk on one side at a time. It takes practise

 

[Scarlett]

I've had something similar with my 6yo exracer. We've spent the last 6 months doing lots and lots of in hand and lunging over poles and small, wide fences to encourage him to rotate up through the shoulder. This was backed up with regular, ie fortnightly, massage as his neck was crooked and very tight, which affected the shoulder.

A favourite was walking into wide, quite spooky fences on the lunge. Cantering in just let's him throw himself at things with the base of the neck down and his forelegs hanging, so we kept it all very slow.

The jumping and poles have massively improved the flatwork. He's really a lovely mover who was just conservative in his movements due to being tight. I believe this issue was partly exacerbated by him adjusting to no longer pulling with his front end, which is huge, and having to push, and also his body adjusting to changes in his foot balance from going barefoot.

We still do lunging over raised poles at least once a week, always in just a headcollar and working on keeping him stretching down whilst also pushing behind. It really has made a huge difference!