redapple
Well-Known Member
I part loan a lovely cob and have done for over a year. The background is she wasn't broken to drive until early teens and hasn't been the easiest but is generally trying to please with the odd moment of "nope, not today thrown in". So she older but green and can be quite stubborn and hot at times. I am currently, however, incredibly frustrated and could do with some ideas. Sorry for the long post!
Over the last few months we have gone from being able to pull off a reasonable prelim test to barely being able to trot around the school a few times without having some obvious issues. If you were to watch I would say the take-home feeling would be we look like we are having an argument with each other!
She pulls like a freight train! She's calm(ish) in walk but as soon as you up the speed into trot or canter she's off. She doesn't break pace (as in if I say trot she doesn't ever break into a canter) and I can still do transitions but the speed of the actual pace is *fast*. And she is very very resistant to slowing down. She feels almost blinkered, I used to be able to use light rein aids and she'd be super sensitive to the seat but now she feels like she's not thinking about anything but going as fast as her legs will take her.
Secondly I'm having a problem with my inside hand rein suddenly being dominant. Obviously not helping and I'm trying hard to give with that hand and hold her more on the outside rein and inside leg but jeez is it feeling like hard work when she's just legging it! She also isn't listening to moving off the leg, so pushing her around the bends with my outside leg is tough and frustrating. She's falling through the shoulder and she will run into the fence.
I've got an instructor and have been having lessons but honestly, i'm finding them frustrating and feel like they've made their own problem. The main thing we have been doing is trying to get her to over flex to the outside, to the extent I can see her outside eye. And just going around (and around...) with her flexed to the outside. One, this is hard work as she's running, not listening to any kind of lateral bend and it feels very odd to me to be going round crooked. Now she will actually do it without being asked which worries me but instructor says that that's what we want as it shows shes off the inside rein (which is my riding that has caused that problem) and we can now get her back to being straight. Except she's cocking her head to the side now and we cant for toffee ride a straight line.
All in all, i'm currently feeling like I've ruined a good horse! Any advice as to what you would do in this situation? Change bit? Scrap lessons? (Can't change instructor no outside instructor allowed, also she's a well-recommended instructor so maybe I'm just being oversensitive and resilient to change?!)
Feeling very deflated!
Over the last few months we have gone from being able to pull off a reasonable prelim test to barely being able to trot around the school a few times without having some obvious issues. If you were to watch I would say the take-home feeling would be we look like we are having an argument with each other!
She pulls like a freight train! She's calm(ish) in walk but as soon as you up the speed into trot or canter she's off. She doesn't break pace (as in if I say trot she doesn't ever break into a canter) and I can still do transitions but the speed of the actual pace is *fast*. And she is very very resistant to slowing down. She feels almost blinkered, I used to be able to use light rein aids and she'd be super sensitive to the seat but now she feels like she's not thinking about anything but going as fast as her legs will take her.
Secondly I'm having a problem with my inside hand rein suddenly being dominant. Obviously not helping and I'm trying hard to give with that hand and hold her more on the outside rein and inside leg but jeez is it feeling like hard work when she's just legging it! She also isn't listening to moving off the leg, so pushing her around the bends with my outside leg is tough and frustrating. She's falling through the shoulder and she will run into the fence.
I've got an instructor and have been having lessons but honestly, i'm finding them frustrating and feel like they've made their own problem. The main thing we have been doing is trying to get her to over flex to the outside, to the extent I can see her outside eye. And just going around (and around...) with her flexed to the outside. One, this is hard work as she's running, not listening to any kind of lateral bend and it feels very odd to me to be going round crooked. Now she will actually do it without being asked which worries me but instructor says that that's what we want as it shows shes off the inside rein (which is my riding that has caused that problem) and we can now get her back to being straight. Except she's cocking her head to the side now and we cant for toffee ride a straight line.
All in all, i'm currently feeling like I've ruined a good horse! Any advice as to what you would do in this situation? Change bit? Scrap lessons? (Can't change instructor no outside instructor allowed, also she's a well-recommended instructor so maybe I'm just being oversensitive and resilient to change?!)
Feeling very deflated!