pulling

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lowbardon

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hi has this happened to anyone? i have a cob mare who i ride in a pelham over the last few weeks she has started pulling to one side when hacking out,its quite hard to explain i have to keep my left rein shorter than the right and have to keep asking her to move into the side of the road,but she doesnt pull on the right side of the bit its the left and it is really starting to hurt my shoulder and back,the problem is i cant school her as she has joint problems and the vet said not to,can anyone offer any advice what could be causing this?
 
Do you mean that she is falling out through her left shoulder towards the hedge? if so it could be that you are collapsing your right hip which would naturally push her to the left and then she will fall out through her shoulder. You need to ask for an outside bend so that you can actually see her left eye, this should straighten her body up and then once she has stopped falling out you can ride straight again, if she persists with doing this the additional thing to this is to place your whip on her left shoulder and as she starts to fall out then put her in an outside bend as described above and smack her left shoulder with your whip at the same time, it usually only takes 3-4 attempts before they cotton on and stop doing it.
 
no sorry it hard to explain,say your riding along she pulls towards the middle of the road,but not against the right rein this rein is loose,its the left rein she pulls on so shes pulling me across the road,so i have to constantly keep my left rein tight to keep her into the side of the road,if i give her a loose rein she drifts to the left side of the road i have tryed tapping her with my whip but it does not help.at the end of the ride my left shoulder aches with trying to keep her in,ive only noticed her doing this in the last couple of weeks
 
It sounds like what she's doing is "hanging" to the right. Have you had her teeth and back checked recently? If it's a new thing for her those are the first things I would get done as it could well be caused by discomfort, and if you say she has bad joints then she could be feeing one side more than the other, so it may also be worth getting the vet to check her. Having said that, one of our racehorses does it, always has and always will, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with him, so he's just trying to get out of work.
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In this case, I find not giving him anything to hold on to, carrying the whip on the side he hangs to and the occasional kick in the belly, again on the side he hangs to, straightens him out.
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Other things you could try if there is no medical reason are a pricker or a dexter bit, but I would only use these if it got really bad.
 
thanks yes that whats she doing,she had her teeth done about 4 months ago and she had a new saddle fitted in january which is a very good fit,you might be right in getting the vet to check her again,she had all her xrays and scans in november and the vet said she was fine then but will get her checked again just to rule out any pain related reason.what is a pricker?
 
It looks a bit like a rubber bit ring, but is usually leather, and has bristles on one side, also known as a bit burr.
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You put it on the bit on the side that she's hanging to, so in your case on the right, with the bristles pointing to her skin. So when you pull on the left rein the bristles will dig into the right side of her face and make her move away from them.
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I personally would only use it every now and then though as otherwise the bristles can make them sore, or they go numb and start ignoring the picker completely, and you're back to square one.
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ETA: also, if she had a new saddle in Jan, it might have settled a bit and could probably do with checking.
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ahh right i think that might be a last resort,got the saddler coming next week so will get her saddle checked and will speak to the vet thanks
 
What is she like to school? It might be worth having a couple of lessons to assess what's happening. If you have lessons already have you mentioned it to your instructor? It's easier to see what's happening from the ground
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