HunkyDory
Active Member
Hi All,
I've been back riding for 10 months after a break of 30 years, or so. I am at a great little school with a really good mix of horses and ponies. I have ridden quite a few different ones and they all have their little unique features. I've gauged my progress through a 16 2 dark bay gelding who is a bomb proof and cleverly lazy boy. I could barely get him to trot when I started out but each time I've ridden him since, we achieve more and more together. I know have him doing some lovely transitions and he's very co-operative, so I know I have improved ten fold.
Recently I have been riding a cob mare, Mary. Mary was bought after being a gypsy pony. She is a very businesslike girl, has a pacy walk and trots up a storm. When they bought her, she didn't understand canter because she didn't know what she was being asked to do, and when they introduced her to jumping, she would literally plough right through them. After the staff worked with her she is now a happy girl who is not so keen on bending but she will walk, trot, canter and jump with her usual enthusiasm.
However, cantering on the right hand reign in the school is not her favourite thing. You can be at rising trot, sit and ask for canter then she falls in and does ever decreasing circles until she reaches the middle of the school. I have had her cantering and staying out on the track on that reign in the larger arena but it is usually a fight all the way, using leg and reign, without which, she will fall in. I rode her last week in the smaller arena and again, she hated staying out on the track at canter on that reign. She would lock her head and become tense and stressed. She does this whoever is riding her, apparently.
My instructor suggested distracting her by making her do a 20 metre circle, transitioning down to trot then walk, or changing reign, then to take her around and ask again. I did all of that but she still fell in at canter. The instructors are quite flexible and if they think you are competent enough will let you put ideas in to your lesson, so I asked if I could try something.
I put her back on that reign and had her at a lovely contained sitting trot, going large and 20 metre circles, then changing reign and cantering on her preferred side. My instructor liked what I was doing and said she looked very secure and confident and to keep that up next time and see what happens. She seemed to like the slight leg contact in sitting trot and her body language was completely different. I'm hoping that if I can work her like that, then she will be easier take up to canter on that reign and not panic and stress and fall in, if we can make it like she does it without realising she is doing it, if that makes sense.
It also occurred to me that there may be something wrong with her sight. She is head shy on that side more than the other so I wonder if she has less than good vision in her left eye so going at a slower pace doesn't freak her out but as soon as she is asked to canter, she can't judge the edge of the arena properly and so that's why she falls in.
Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions. She's a lovely girl who is affectionately nick named 'hairy Mary' as she has the obligatory walrus tache that goes with Cobdom
I've been back riding for 10 months after a break of 30 years, or so. I am at a great little school with a really good mix of horses and ponies. I have ridden quite a few different ones and they all have their little unique features. I've gauged my progress through a 16 2 dark bay gelding who is a bomb proof and cleverly lazy boy. I could barely get him to trot when I started out but each time I've ridden him since, we achieve more and more together. I know have him doing some lovely transitions and he's very co-operative, so I know I have improved ten fold.
Recently I have been riding a cob mare, Mary. Mary was bought after being a gypsy pony. She is a very businesslike girl, has a pacy walk and trots up a storm. When they bought her, she didn't understand canter because she didn't know what she was being asked to do, and when they introduced her to jumping, she would literally plough right through them. After the staff worked with her she is now a happy girl who is not so keen on bending but she will walk, trot, canter and jump with her usual enthusiasm.
However, cantering on the right hand reign in the school is not her favourite thing. You can be at rising trot, sit and ask for canter then she falls in and does ever decreasing circles until she reaches the middle of the school. I have had her cantering and staying out on the track on that reign in the larger arena but it is usually a fight all the way, using leg and reign, without which, she will fall in. I rode her last week in the smaller arena and again, she hated staying out on the track at canter on that reign. She would lock her head and become tense and stressed. She does this whoever is riding her, apparently.
My instructor suggested distracting her by making her do a 20 metre circle, transitioning down to trot then walk, or changing reign, then to take her around and ask again. I did all of that but she still fell in at canter. The instructors are quite flexible and if they think you are competent enough will let you put ideas in to your lesson, so I asked if I could try something.
I put her back on that reign and had her at a lovely contained sitting trot, going large and 20 metre circles, then changing reign and cantering on her preferred side. My instructor liked what I was doing and said she looked very secure and confident and to keep that up next time and see what happens. She seemed to like the slight leg contact in sitting trot and her body language was completely different. I'm hoping that if I can work her like that, then she will be easier take up to canter on that reign and not panic and stress and fall in, if we can make it like she does it without realising she is doing it, if that makes sense.
It also occurred to me that there may be something wrong with her sight. She is head shy on that side more than the other so I wonder if she has less than good vision in her left eye so going at a slower pace doesn't freak her out but as soon as she is asked to canter, she can't judge the edge of the arena properly and so that's why she falls in.
Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions. She's a lovely girl who is affectionately nick named 'hairy Mary' as she has the obligatory walrus tache that goes with Cobdom
