resistance in mouth?

[hannah87]

hi, the last few weeks my gelding has statred to lean heavily on the left rein (by this i mean the actual left rein, regardless of which direction we are going!) , he has always been a difficult ride on the flat - solve one problem, another pops up etc, and i thort this was his new way of evasion - so peresevered ive tried throwing the rein away so theres nothing to lean on -, lots of half halts, riding on very loose rein with no contact etc, nothing works, so last nite went to the dressage clinic i go 2 every fortnight, asked my instructer and she had a feel of his mouth &teeth and said that there was some resistance there?im not sure wat she meant by this? i had his teeth done only a few weeks back by the vet, - instructer advised me to get a proper dentist out 2 look at him instead. but wud like 2 know wat the resistance was she meant, and any other opnions?hes ridden in an eggbutt snaffle, cavesson, no martingale

 

[vicijp]

Did the vet do a lot of work on his teeth?
If his mouth was a bit of a mess, it is likely he was compensating in his back somewhere. Thus taking the pain away in the mouth, but still using his back in the same way.
Remember the back starts in his mouth, so if you trust the vet did an ok job, get his back checked by a physio.

 

[hannah87]

no she spent only about 15 - 20 mins on his teeth and said that they were not bad - altho last year he did have some bigs hooks apparently, - he had never had his teeth done b4 we had him - got him at 10 so that was the cause of the hooks

 

[jennyb]

So how is his back?? and saddle? Are you left or right handed? It can feel worse on the left if your right handed as your not as strong/capable down the left side of your body (or vise versa if you are left handed).
His resistance will be him setting not only his mouth against you but the whole left side of his body, making him feel like an ironing board to get to turn on a left circle? So as vicijp said there's often pain somewhere, and even when the pain is removed (i.e. teeth have been rasped, physio, tack checked etc....) he'll probably continue to be like this because he's both expecting pain and has learnt this is a way to do stuff so his muscle willl have become tight from not flexing. Have a think about how you warm up - are you giving him enough time? are you spending even amount of time on one rein? have you a consistent contact? are you really riding leg to hand? If you feel its just him, and there is deffinately no pain, go back to basic and and work to correct the problem from the leg and not the hand - as hard as you can pull on the left rein he will always beable to pull more!