Teaching young horses lateral work

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Walrus

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Hello,

Just wondering if anyone could giv me an idiots guide to teaching a young horse lateral work. Nothing fancy but I'm riding a 3 year old TB who I get to play with in the school a couple of times a week. Her flatwork is improving as she becomes stronger and more balanced and she seems to be quite teachable - I was very proud of her canter transitions on Friday! I think she'd benefit from doing some basic lateral work to engage her hind quarters a bit as she tends to plough along like a donkey a bit with her head stuck out. I've never ridden a horse this young or such a "blank canvas" before so any tips on teaching her lateral work would be much appreciated. Do I start with turn on the forhand, leg yield ?? I'm making a concious effort to get her to go over in the stable. Also please bare in mind our school is very small - probs a 25m circle (more of a lunge pen - but it's a school for which I am eternally greatful!).

Cheers
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Turn on and about the fore hand are good, rein back, serpentines, halt to trot vice versa, walk to canter vice versa then halt to canter, leg yielding. The list is endless
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I LOVE schooling
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i'd start with leg yield in walk as imho it's the easiest. come off short side a bit early onto the 2nd or 3rd track (i.e. 2m or 3m off the outside track) and then put inside leg back, look to outside, and ask horse to step across gradually towards outside track (but not leading with head and neck). the young horse will have a natural tendency to go to the outside track anyway so you are exploiting this. praise when you get a step or two, do a circle, repeat, etc.
then, turn on forehand is the next logical progression as horse has learnt to step away from inside leg being moved back...
when horse is good at leg yield outwards, you can change bend and leg yield back in towards centreline, etc.
hope that helps a bit!
 
i would start with leg yield as it is the easiest for the horse to understand.

i start all of mine off first in hand so walking by the head facing backwards- little half halt on the reins then a tap where your leg would go with a schooling whip and say 'over.'

can be easier to do a few strides on a circle first until they get the idea, then straight lines, then move to being in the saddle.
 
i would start with turn on the forehand, then progress to leg yield in walk and then trot. i wouldnt do it in canter until she is older and better established.
i wouldnt do much more than that with a 3yo tbh.
 
Thanks everyone,

Kerilli - that's just what I needed, step by step instructions!

And don't worry we're definitely not going overboard, I really do want to keep it basic, but at the same time I need to try and get her a little more engaged as she's just flobbing along a bit!

Cheers.
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There are many roads to Rome but I always do leg yielding with my inside leg on the girth. For every other movement your inside leg is on the girth so why confuse the horse by using a different aid? Leg yielding with the inside leg on the girth, pushing the horse into the outside rein keeps the aids consistent and is then an introduction to shoulder in. Decreasing the size of the circle then leg yielding out is an easy exercise for a young horse to understand as the smaller circle helps to balance and engage the horse so it is then easier to move forward and sideways to a bigger circle. Just watch that you don't lose the outside shoulder and that you keep turning as you move out. For me this is easier than on a straight line for a baby who is probably barely strong enough to do more. Many young TBs are a little high behind so, depending on their conformation, you have to be careful how much you ask them. Walk /trot and trot/walk transitions may be more beneficial than lateral work at this stage.
 
Morning,

Quick update as I had a play before work this morning. The horse is a total superstar! Before I got on I just lead her round the school and pushed her over a bit from the inside to outside track. Then got on, did our normal warm up and then just trried encouraging her from inside track to outside track in walk. She was a little star and did more over a bit - I definitely felt her hind leg move across, just a few steps in generally the right direction but so much better than I was expecting, especially considering I don't have much of a clue. Just did that a couple of times on each rein and that was plenty for her.

FWIW she is a big baby, big chaser type TB built like a tank (if I didn't know she was TB I'd say there was something else in there!). She's only going in the school a couple of times a week, her fitness level is also reasonable as she's hacking out quite a bit and working on the gallops too - she's supposed to be point to pointing in a 4 year old race in 2010. Not my choice I have to say but she's not my horse.

I thought introducing lateral work would be interesting for her as our school is limited, like I said it's essentially a 25m circle lunge ring so I don't like doing too much faster stuff with her in there as she is working on a permenant circle. When I started she was terrible off the leg but we do lots of transitions and she is so much better now.

One other question - having never had a young horse, she's not mouthing the bit very much or frothing at the mouth, do you think this will come with time as she gets balanced, stronger and starts to come through from behind a little more and relax her jaw. I ride her on quite a loose rein with a gentle contact as I want her to balance herself. Does this sound right?

Cheers

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I'm going to go a bit against the grain here...

I don't start with leg yielding back to the track as I don't believe it's genuinely asking the horse to step across properly and leads to the aids being too wishy-washy. I teach leg yield against the fence- head and shoulders turned to the outside and outside leg moving the horse along the rail.

I also don't teach turn on the forehand as I find it can lead to resistance in the hand- I prefer turn about the haunches or a 1/2 pirouette
 
I would go even further against the grain to say I wouldnt teach lateral work until the horse is truly straight into a contact on both reins. Teaching the horse to move off the leg is one thing, and can be taught by getting them to move away from your inside leg into an outside rein on a circle, but true "going sideways" stuff should be reserved until your horse is equal in both reins, as otherwise you are not getting the true and correct movement anyway, and are just teaching them to "fall" away from your leg.
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This is something that was highlighted to me by someone I have lessons with (a 4* eventer known for producing horses) and actually although it originally went against the grain of how I have done things before, it makes alot of sense.
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KatB, I don't think that is against the grain. Of course the first thing the horse has to learn is to go forward from behind from the leg into both reins in a clear even rhythm. A leg yield is not going to be of any benefit until there is some connection from behind to the contact. If she is going racing it is more important that she goes forward from behind and learns to face and take the contact otherwise with the galloping she will block against the rein and become wooden. If you ride her with a contact but making sure it is elastic, then you will be able to show her how to balance herself. If you don't show her the way then she will stay on her forehand and become comfortable with herself like that.
 
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