Schooling Problems

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loverly

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Any exercises or advice on this scenario? Sorry quite long and many questions... :rolleyes:

6 year old Warmblood x is coming along well schooling wise and am now picking up a contact however he resists going long and low. How do I encourage this? When I do pick up the contact he will lean on the left rein - I have no idea how to prevent this as tried a few things...

Also, going into canter he jumps into it then when he is in canter he chucks his head from side to side, up and down and will run out of the arena no matter how much leg!!! What's the best way to deal with this? (I should add he isn't always like this, but he is becoming more difficult to get to work nicely.)

N.B. He had his teeth done 2 weeks ago, back done a month ago and new saddle 4 months ago, so doubt it is anything to do with this but I may be wrong.
 
It sounds like your horse does not have full mobility of his head and neck due probably to not releasing his tongue - this could be because you are pulling back. This may be inadvertently as his movement may be very big and you may be trying to micro-control him (it happens all the time).

Try working him in hand to get him accepting the bit, and just working to get flexion in his neck before you persevere with the canter work.

To feel what it feels like to resist the bit, try walking around with your tongue jammed to the roof of your mouth. Can you breathe properly?
 
I thought u were describing my boy there!
Mine takes a mighty leap into canter, also prone to just legging it out of the school, and leaning on one reign, apart from that he's perfect :D
He's also young, just turned 5.

He is getting better in time, i've noticed if i switch off he's 30 secs behind me and once he's switched off all of this starts till i've got his concentration fully again, i think its very much age related.

The more he's put into canter the better he's becoming. He's a chhunky boy and its his way of balancing himself.
The legging it out of the school i have tried my best to knock on the head, he too wouldn't listen to leg and if i pulled his head right round to turn him on the spot he'd just keep going out backwards or sideways, if to hard on reigns he'd go up.
I solved this in one day, not saying it will work for you as your fella may be totally different, deppends on temprement etc. But i donned a pair of spurs and got a good crop, let him throw his tantrum at my refusal to allow him all the way back to the barn then i threw mine :D
I had bucking, rearing the lot, he then gave in and went back in school, for good measure i marched him in and out a dozen times. He's not done it since, i can even stand him in the gate area now and he wont go forward until i ask. Some horses would explode at this, i knew he wouldn't, he'd just throw a hissy fit.

The pulling on one reign i'm still working on, he seems to be doing it on both, more so when other ponies around, sort of pulling towards them, maybe someone answering ur post will give me some ideas :)
 
Housemouse, that sounds like exactly what is going on as I'm micro managing him in canter as i'd like to stay in the arena. He does however except the bit in walk and will eventually go nicely in trot but canter is just leap after leap or could be the other end of the scale - barely cantering no matter how much encouragement even jumping. Could a different bit help?

Missyme10, i'm glad I haven't got the only horse that has this habit at the moment! I think I'm going to go buy myself some new spurs as I can't find my old ones and see what happens.
 
loverly said:
Any exercises or advice on this scenario? Sorry quite long and many questions... :rolleyes:

6 year old Warmblood x is coming along well schooling wise and am now picking up a contact however he resists going long and low. How do I encourage this? When I do pick up the contact he will lean on the left rein - I have no idea how to prevent this as tried a few things...

Also, going into canter he jumps into it then when he is in canter he chucks his head from side to side, up and down and will run out of the arena no matter how much leg!!! What's the best way to deal with this? (I should add he isn't always like this, but he is becoming more difficult to get to work nicely.)

N.B. He had his teeth done 2 weeks ago, back done a month ago and new saddle 4 months ago, so doubt it is anything to do with this but I may be wrong.
Click to expand...

Your saddle should be due for a check up by now to see how the flocking has settled/any change in shape. Just worth checking that. How does he canter on the lunge? thats another way of seeing if you are blocking him inadvertantly?
 
Long and low requires your horse to relax, it is easiest to get once you have a good bond and you've done a nice warm-up to check out anything spooky in the arena/let off some steam etc. At the moment it sounds as though horse is either nervous-novicy or in discomfort and/or bored with the schooling.

As mentioned get the saddle checked again and see how horse goes on lunge/free schooling. For long and low do some chilled things together too, e.g, nice long hacks, ideally with horsey company sometimes. TBH nudging your sides with little bits of metal would be unlikely to get you relaxed. Responsive, yes, relaxed, not so much.
 
Tickles i think u misunderstand me, the spurs aren't used to help relax a horse, they are used for a short sharp lesson to deal with the legging it out of the school, legging it like that is very bad behaviour and if not knocked on the head quickly it can become a serious napping problem. I dont wear spurs on my lad, it was just to teach the bugger a lesson, and it worked perfectly, because he was doing it for no reason other than being a nob :D
 
I've only lightly schooled him last week as I was thinking he might be getting bored of the school so went for long hacks with friends which included a trip to go galloping!


I have just come back from lunging him and he went ok. He wasn't forward in canter at all and was leaning on the side reins (they weren't tight, just giving a bit of contact). I didn't use a saddle to see if that made a difference.

I have done another post about his hooves, could being heel sore cause him to do this? Link to post - http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=466515

I am going to get a saddler out to check the saddle asap.
 
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