He leans right
QHow can I stop my horse hanging on the right rein? I’ve recently had his back, teeth and saddle checked. I’ve done lots of transitions and lateral work that seems to help, but do you have any other suggestions? Tiffany Marks, Yorkshire
AWhile you’re warming up, take a minute to ask yourself two questions: 1, Am I sitting evenly? 2, Do I have an equal rein length? This will help you to assess your position and how that may be influencing your horse. When a horse hangs on one rein it has often become a habit. He might resist working in a different way until it becomes familiar and he feels confident that he can maintain his balance. It takes time and patience to teach a horse to work in a new frame, so make sure you include plenty of variety in your sessions and encourage regular rest and relaxation breaks, such as stretching in walk.
How to solve it
First of all, you need to check your horse’s response to your leg aids in walk on the right rein and determine if he moves away from your right leg. To begin: In walk, ride away from the track, slow your horse down and ask him to move away from your leg, riding a turnabout the forehand (to do this, see page 42). Make sure your hands allow him the freedom to seek the rein contact, before moving into medium walk again. Try to resist the temptation to allow him to become heavy in your right hand by squeezing with your legs and encouraging him to step more actively forwards. Ask for trot and concentrate on maintaining a regular rhythm. Return to walk and repeat the exercise two or three times on each rein. The next step is to position your horse in slight shoulder-fore on the long side and assess how he’s coping before he loses balance. Circle away to help him reconnect. This exercise can be ridden in all three paces by varying the size of the circle depending on the pace, so that the circle is easy for him. As a guide, a 10m circle in walk, 15m circle in trot and 20m in canter for a prelim/novice horse works well. With improved balance and suppleness, over time you can decrease the size of the circle.