Strong horse in correct frame - will it improve?

[GreenEyedMonster]

To cut a long story short:

i bought my mare in May, she was incredibly green, did not understand contact, leg etc. only knew hoe to halt, pace and canter (tranter for those who know standardbreds)

She's come on so much since then with patience and gentleness but now she understands basic aids she needs to start working in a correct, round frame.

I've tried for he last 3-4 months the nicely softly approach and it doesn't work, when i had my instructor who is a qualified physio and produces her own horses she found she had to be quite handsy to get her to accept a round, secure contact and after a short while in this strong contact she then was able to lengthen the reins and my mare reached down and maintained her round frame (not consistently as understandably she isn't strong enough yet)


Now i've tried to avoid being handsy as it doesn't seem nice to the horse but then at the same time we are just going round in a floppy, hollow frame unless she is feeling relaxed in which case she still doesn't take a consistent contact.

A few days ago i gave up on the nicey nicey approach and just took a stringer contact, had to ask a lot for her to come round and eventually she did so quite nicely, she was able to maintain it fairly well so i feel this is a big step.

HOWEVER

In this manner she is now leaning/being a bit strong which my trainer did say she was at first, whilst she did improve and there were moments when i could reward her i'm curious to know will this leaning/being strong improve as she gets stronger herself and learns to sit up better?

It's hard enough already asking her to sit up and not lean on my hands as i have to use my seat/core which makes my legs burn! Will she learn to not do this/get stronger and so won't need to?

i did find that once she clocked that sitting up/balancing etc. was rewarded she was much better but i'm still worried i'm doing the wrong thing!

for those who had a horse who started off very strong in the contact, did they get lighter as they got stronger etc??

tia

 

[paddi22]

I retrained a trotter last year and went through the exact same thing.

The key is to keep your hands consistent and do tons of half halts to stop her from leaning off your hands. With my one when her head came up i'd keep a consistent contact but give her more leg, so she would come back into a better frame. Don't fall into a trap of the two of you having a contact battle where she gets strong and you end up pulling, you will only end up with a horse that tries to run through your hand that way. Once she got that idea she started to get heavy in my hands, but it really is a case of half halting every few steps and rewarding when she holds her own head and relaxes. My girl is a little hot rocket, but the key is to get her to accept the leg and i constantly keep my leg round her. Keep her on circles and reward and soften any time she gives you want you want,even a step or two. Until she gets balanced and stronger she won't be able to work properly or in a consistent way, it's just a case of gradual improvement. But the key is the half halt, and to soften and reward as soon as she gives.

 

[twiggy2]

It sounds like the horse is being asked for more than she is ready for.
That said some horses prefer a stronger contact but with consistent hands.
Riding properly is not easy and does require your core to be very strong it does hurt unless you are very fit, your horse can only hold itself once truly fit and you need to hold yourself and communicate lightly to help your horse get to help your horse get to that point