Walk exercises to lighten the forehand

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Sam_J

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My friend is kindly letting me ride her horse as the horse needs work and my friend hates schooling. The horse is very unfit and and has not really done much schooling. I'm currently up to 20 mins, mostly walk with a few short bursts of trot. Any suggestions for exercises that will stop her leaning on my hands and encourage her to start using her hind legs rather than dragging herself along in front?
 
Shoulders out, shoulders in, big half walk pirouettes, leg yields with quick changes of direction, raised walk poles
 
Assuming the saddle etc fits correctly and isnt pinching (making her want to stretch her head down to lift it off her back) lots of transitions. Halt, walk on, halt, walk on, trot, walk...etc etc etc the slowing down in transitions is harder but is also what builds up the hind. If you have hills work on stopping on them going down hill again this builds the back end, and back up on the hill too. Be sure your hands are not enabling the action also, if shes leaning and you are letting your arm go straight she will just plough on, so half halt or bring back, re establish her head and continue.
 
Lots of well prepared walk to halt transitions will help. I also find, walk -halt -rein back - walk transitions really help lighten the forehand.
 
All the above, plus "lollipop trees" in walk.

5-10m circle right 5-10 steps straight 5-10m circle left 5-10 steps straight. And repeat all the way across the long diagonal. Also helps calm the tense ones, but they can't do the circle changes properly with their forehand stuck to the floor.
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And don't meet her resistance with resistance, she can only pull if you give her something to pull against, the release is super important. I would do groundwork too, much easier to learn how to lift in front when not carrying a rider - see straightnesstraining.com, Manolo Mendez etc. I have a longer list of links I can send if you pm me your email address.
 
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All the above as well as refusing to carry the horses head, as soon as she leans, drop the contact. Retake a light contact when she rebalances herself. She will soon learn to carry her own head.

You also need to check that she is comfortable in her mouth.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I tried the squares and the lollipop tree today and they worked well but she obviously found them very tiring!

I am very careful about not holding in front or carrying her head. She doesn't lean badly, it's more just a sense of heaviness in front and of her pulling herself along with her front legs. I'll continue with the above exercises and also add in lots of transitions. Anyone want to add anything else?

@sbloom will send you a PM.
 
Sam_J said:
Thanks for all the replies. I tried the squares and the lollipop tree today and they worked well but she obviously found them very tiring!

I am very careful about not holding in front or carrying her head. She doesn't lean badly, it's more just a sense of heaviness in front and of her pulling herself along with her front legs. I'll continue with the above exercises and also add in lots of transitions. Anyone want to add anything else?

@sbloom will send you a PM.
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Time.

It takes time. I work on the assumption that it'll take a year to change a horses way of going. Some think they will do a few exercises and that's it, but it takes steady, progressive training.

I've been doing lots of pole work with my 6yo who is very front heavy. Lots of slow, steady work over raised poles to get his legs up, mostly on the lunge, has worked a treat and we're starting to really see a difference. Even walking through raised poles in hand is a really useful exercise.
 
She will be tired if you are asking her to use virtually all her muscles differently. If you can take her hacking and encourage her to use her muscles in the new way, she might find it all a bit less intense.
 
Sam_J said:
Thanks for all the replies. I tried the squares and the lollipop tree today and they worked well but she obviously found them very tiring!

I am very careful about not holding in front or carrying her head. She doesn't lean badly, it's more just a sense of heaviness in front and of her pulling herself along with her front legs. I'll continue with the above exercises and also add in lots of transitions. Anyone want to add anything else?
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this will improve with her general fitness if you can teach her to engage behind, and use her core muscles to support herself and the rider, you will feel her almost lift under the withers. Walk is a useful pace to work in but without the suspension it is difficult to improve compared to other paces and does require a bit of tact in order that you don't disrupt the rhythm and correctness of the walk.

Depending on your experience alternating between free, medium and collected walk for short spells can help to develop that feeling of being light in front, as the horse has to take shorter, more active steps behind as you collect them. agree with PAS, an unfit horse can find this very hard so short correct bursts interspersed with easier things are much more productive than longer less correct ones.
 
Start schooling long and low including circles, and as many have said lots of transitions. My trainer also got me and Paddy doing leg yields on the diagonal for the same problem.....
 
I've been riding a friend's horse who is very earthbound. My instructor has got us to do many transitions to help him engage. Last lesson a key point was to really keep the leg on into the halt. So sort of think stop, leg on, final stop - like the front stops before the back. This helped him step under with the hind legs into the halt and be less strung out. It was a small but subtle different and really helped.

Oh and you might have to play around with the head carriage. We have to do everything with the head purposefully up and not in any sort of outline as he has been taught to just tuck his head in and then he sort of runs himself into the ground.
 
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