Help schooling a TB on the circle??

Question

Here is my dilema... When i started schooling this horse she was doing pretty well, not dropping her shoulder and was flexing really nice to both sides... Well I decided to start training her for cross country to get her into better shpe, but now that she is fit, she does not wanna flex her head when riding on the circle.. I rode her for two hours yesterday before she started responding to my legs or flexing, even then she was trying to point her outside shoulder out and dropping her inside shoulder. I let a friend of mine ride her to see if there might be a difference but when I got back on her she was even worse than before. Now shes even hard to turn and her mouth isnt as soft so shes even harder to ride. Any suggestions on how to get her to brake at the poll or flex better?

Answer 1

YES!!! get an equine chiropractor to look at her.. bet dollars to donuts there is a problem with her back that you may have missed... The horse was willing, and now blatantly is refusing to bend correctly, she could have pulled he back in the stall... or anywhere for that matter... 30 mins with an eq. chiro should have you some good answers :

And good luck with your friend :)

Answer 2

It could be a saddle fit problem. If you've been riding her more lately to get her in shape, she might have a sore back from an improper fit. She also may have a sore neck or chest. Could be any number of muscular problems. Get an equine massage therapist to look at her. They should be able to give you a good idea of what's causing any problem as well as exercises and things you can do to prevent any problems in the future.

Answer 3

Getting her in shape for cross country probably built her muscles, but lessened her flexability. Work on neck flexing exersices.

Get on with treats in your pocket. Hold it to the side of her face so she sees it/smells it. When you have her attention...bring the treat backwards twords your leg as much as she can go. Then do it on the other side.

Another good flexing exersice is to do serpentines. In case you don't know what they are: You basically "snake" your way down the ring. Cut straight across the ring at one point (if you have dressage letters around, use those), then when you get to the other side, turn, go to the next letter, turn and cut across again. So your making a very cury "S".

When you go around the corner, hold with your inside leg and give a small half halt with your inside reign to have her bend her neck. The inside leg will give her a pole to bend around. Also lean onto your inside seatbone. So your basically holding her body with your inside body cues, and turning her neck with your rein. Use your outside leg to catch her if she decides to drift away from your inside leg.

Doing small circles will also help, but try to keep her from "motorcycling" (tipping in rather than benging) through them.

Answer 4

Check her teeth, could be a dental problem.

You say now that she is fit......  while building her muscles did you work the groups necessary for flexion and bending??

I would go back to long and low work and get her to relax.

Go on a few trailrides and just have fun and forget about work once or twice a week.

If it is not a physical pain issue perhaps she is getting burnt out and is protesting.

Answer 5

i have gone to some dressage clinics and my horse does the same shoulder thing and ive always been told to push his shoulder into line with the outside rein by pulling/pushing the rein over toward the inside of the circle on and off with the inside rein keeping him flexed cause him to drop his head in.

good luck and i hope this helps

Answer 6

There is a good exercise i use get a leadrope clip it onto the horse halter and bring the end of the leadrope to her shoulder an keep it there until he give but if she walks follow her then when shes good both sides that thn start bringing it to her whither!!!!!

hope this helps as it helps me get flection in my horses!!!

Answer 7

Do you think it could be YOU causing the problem? Without seeing you ride i couldn't tell you, but i tend to believe that "its never the horses fault"

Maybe after the time off a ring work you lost "it" (whatever "it" is) and then when coming back into it, you weren't asking her the same.  since you say she got worse when you go back on, could it possibly be that your getting frustrated.

Personally, i think you have to choose your battles, riding for two hours isn't  going to help, but riding until you get a LITTLE flex and getting off teaches her what she did was right.

With a TB, you can't school them till they're dead because one, that could take HOURS and two, they have shorter attention spans, so whenever you get something SLIGHTLY positive, you have to give in and be done.

Also, if you see a ride going south choose something different to do that day, say, get a little bend and then just go for a hack or jump or something..

Obviously i can't be sure of any of this, and I'm expecting some thumbs down, but i don't think your approaching this the right way.  TB's feed off your emotions, and the harder you get, the harder she gets.  Knowing TB's and how frustrating they can be, you need to come at it with a lighter, happier and NEW view.