Striding out without speeding up - How?!

[smirnoff_ice]

Molly (black mare in my sig) has pretty much been completely re-schooled this past 18 months. She's always been VERY fast in everything she does, so it's been a long hard struggle to get her mind to slow down.

(She's about 9 years old now).
She's been off work for 5 months with a soft tissue injury, but we got the all-clear to start trotting a few weeks ago.

Yesterday i schooled her for the first time in nearly 6 months and was really pleased with her.

However, in order to get her to trot at a sensible speed, she doesn’t track up.

She's mostly Welsh D (with a bit of TB), so i suppose her trot is slightly elevated compared to some other breeds, but she still feels too short.

Anyone got any exercises we can try to encourage her to stride out a bit more, but without trotting at a million miles an hour?!

Many thanks!

Lou.

 

[juliehannah58]

I always found in speedy horses that slowing your rise down whilst keeping leg on gently will get them to stride out more

 

[kirstyhen]

Trooting poles set slightly longer than her natural stride, work on keeping her steady and after a few times she should start to adjust. Just move them slightly longer, so she only has to reach a little bit. This is what we did with a an old sj who was being reschooled for dressage, it really helped him.

 

[saskia295]

[ QUOTE ]
Trooting poles set slightly longer than her natural stride, work on keeping her steady and after a few times she should start to adjust. Just move them slightly longer, so she only has to reach a little bit. This is what we did with a an old sj who was being reschooled for dressage, it really helped him.

[/ QUOTE ]

Exactly what I was just about to suggest!!!!

 

[kirstyhen]

Great minds think alike!!

 

[KatB]

The slooowwww rising works very well....make it so it feels really slow to you, but big rises to encourage her to swing through her back and into a slower rhythm encourage them to strecth over their backs and use their shoulders a bit more. This combined with lots of transitions to help shift weight behind will help get the engine balanced, so they can also free up their shoulders and increase stride length

 

[smirnoff_ice]

Thank you girlies!

Will deffinately try the slow rising and the poles. She's a real tryer, so we shall see....

Thanks again! x