Turning into the centre of the school?

[S_Farrah]

Hi all,
I've recently aquired a horse to share, she's a 7 year old 15.3hh Morgan/cob and I love her to pieces. I've had her for around about a month now and I've recently encountered a few problems. The main one being her tendancy to turn into the center of the school. This problem only arises when I'm a good half hour into exersising her. We'll be trotting allong and she'll suddenly (usually at a similar place in the school) begin to pull towards the center. I usually tip her head back towards the track, and push with my inside leg which she resists to and continues to pull untill I end up getting fustrated and yanking her back to the track... which doesn't seem the best way to go about the problem, causing us both much grief.
This also occurs in canter, she skips corners of the school and pulls me into the inside track. When attempting to push her back onto the outside track I loose the canter, which I find hard enough to keep anyway.

What shall I do? Any suggestions appreciated!
Thank-you!

S_Farrah

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

I think the best thing you could do would be to get a good instructor to watch you and give advice based on what s/he sees.
I wonder if the problem is that one, or both, of you is getting tired by that point in your sessions.

 

[spotty_pony]

I wouldn't be surprised if the reason she is doing this is because she thinks it's about time you finished riding and got off! A lot of riders turn into the middle to dismount so she is probably just being cheeky, maybe the person you share her with (or an owner in the past) has always done this and so it is just a habit. You can get her out of this habit by always dismounting her in different places (e.g on the track and not in the middle of the school if possible.) As for cutting corners, this is another tack-tic a lot of horses use to try and reduce the amount of work they do (cutting corners = they get around the school quicker!)

As pearlacarolsinger suggested, I would also recommend you get a good instructor to help you as it is hard to give too much advice without seeing the horse and seeing you riding)

But here are some ideas:

You could try putting some cones or poles in the corners of the school to ride around, which will help you get her into the corners.

Do plenty of transitions, circles, etc to keep her interested and to take her mind off from trying to turn into the middle.

A good thing to learn how to do (if you don't already know how) is to leg yield her towards the track to teach her to move away from the leg which should help when you come to ask her to move deeper into the corners. Practise first by turning up the 3/4 line of the school, keep your outside leg on the girth and your inside leg slightly behind, keep your inside rein pressed against her neck and open your outside rein slightly but make sure still keep a contact. Push her over towards the track using your inside leg. You can do this in walk and trot and with a bit of schooling you can try it in canter too and you can also try doing it starting from the track, onto the three quarter line. Then, once you have the hang of this, riding corners should be easy as you can leg yield her into them.

Another tip, is make sure she isn't bored. Vary the work you do with her - pop her over a jump or some trotting poles or take her out for a hack for a change.

Hope this all makes sense. Good luck!

 

[La Fiaba]

A good thing to learn how to do (if you don't already know how) is to leg yield her towards the track to teach her to move away from the leg which should help when you come to ask her to move deeper into the corners. Practise first by turning up the 3/4 line of the school, keep your outside leg on the girth and your inside leg slightly behind, keep your inside rein pressed against her neck and open your outside rein slightly but make sure still keep a contact. Push her over towards the track using your inside leg.

Sorry but just wanted to point out that this is not correct for leg yield, is half pass really. For leg yield the horse should be bent away from direction of movement so should be outside rein stays put to control the shoulder, and inside rein asks for the bend.