Working from behind?

Achinghips

Achinghips

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quick recap: hock arthritis, did have weak back and was all arched neck and dipped back.

Now - well into full physical fitness and back is strong and level after using pessoa for about 4 months, working beautifully from ground. Confo is now fab.

Get on her? - no working from behind again.

Any advice/thoughts appreciated?
 
A good exercise for building the back end is turn on the forehand. Lots of halt, trot, halt transitions. Don't support her head, try and work on a long rein whilst still maintaining a contact and keep your leg on, push into the contact:)
 
That's good advice, what you think about some instructor long reining at lunge with me riding to encourage tranistion between pessoa and correct going while being ridden?
It's taken a lot of input to get her to this strength and confo with such great going - god forbid I ride her in a way that now develops bad musclature, so worried.
 
Echo lots of transitions, and if you have the terrain for it, lots and lots of hill work. Do you feed hay from the floor? We find that not using nets is much better for backs and necks.
 
Achinghips said:
That's good advice, what you think about some instructor long reining at lunge with me riding to encourage tranistion between pessoa and correct going while being ridden?
It's taken a lot of input to get her to this strength and confo with such great going - god forbid I ride her in a way that now develops bad musclature, so worried.
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You don't need the pessoa! Or lungeing/long reining. Get on her, give her plenty of time to warm up on a long rein, really get her stretching down then gradually pick up the rein and keep your leg on. It will take time, she needs that time to build up the correct muscles to be able to work from behind. :)
 
Something could be blocking her movement through. Worth considering if she shows ability to work correctly on the lunge but not under saddle. just a thought...
 
My boy sounds very similar to your horse. He has very slight Arthritis of the hocks and used to be very stiff through his back which made it very hard for him to be able to work correctly. He is now very fit, and has developed the correct muscle to be able to work correctly.

I feed him a joint supplement (Cortaflex) during the winter when he is stabled a lot, as this has helped to reduce the stiffness. Do you feed your horse a joint supplement? Also, he wears stable chaps over the winter, as a friend suggested I try them. One of his legs used to click when he was warming up, but since he has been wearing stable chaps, his leg no longer clicks and I think as his joints have been kept warm, it stops him from stiffening up too much. So I would highly recommend you look into getting some if your horse is stabled.

As others have said, make sure spend plenty of time allowing her to warm up on a long rein and also remember that cooling her off correctly at the end of a schooling session will help to reduce stiffness. Transitions are good for improving work from behind. I do a lot of walk to canter, as the horse has to sit back more and use his back end to strike off in canter from a walk, whereas he can canter from a trot without much effort at all. I also do lots of rein back to trot/canter to lighten his forehand and get him sitting back on his hind legs. Also make sure you are riding her forwards. A good exercise to supple her back and get her stepping through from behind is to leg yield across the long diagonal (start in walk) keep her head straight and insist she steps forwards and sideways.

Hope this helps. :)
 
Just love this site!!

Thanks everyone. Yes she is on cortaflex and had steroid injections last July.

I'll give the ideas a go and let you know how I get on :)
 
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