How do i keep my horse from falling in?

Question

i need to keep my horse from falling in i keep my shoulders open and lok through the outside ear if i have to. when i use my inside leg to connect with my ouside rein he doesnt listen and just goes faster! what should i do?

Answer 1

sit up and back, hold outside rein for support (no outside leg so he has somewhere to move into), add inside leg and then inside rein (in a small bend/half halt) to push him into your outside contact.

but it is a matter of you sitting up and 'lifting' your shoulder, not necessarily keeping them open.  you want to have your shoulder even with the horizon, even if your horse isn't.

-also, when hes going faster its probably because he doesn't have the balance to make it through the corner, so they rush (speed keeps them from falling down) and in his defense, your putting on inside leg (and i assume) still holding outside leg, so your TELLING him to go faster.

you might want to look into a trainer to help you through this though, as i can't see you ride..

good luck!

Answer 2

Back to basics. Start at the walk and re-establish give to pressure under saddle. Start some simple lateral work like sidepassing to get him responding to your leg. Teach him to pivot on the haunches from the halt, and eventually a turn on the haunches from the walk. Counter bending, bending in general. Right now he's thinking leg=go. Which is not correct. Make sure you're keeping a constant contact with your legs at all times, because when you dont that just reinforces leg=go.

Don't forget that inside rein. The outside rein is very important, but your inside has to offer some support too.

When my horse tries to drop his shoulder it's generally a behavioral thing-he pretends to be a freight train around turns and will drag unless you establish a mutual agreement that you both are NOT going to hang on eachother. I keep my outside rein, and think of riding inside to outside. I'll use an indirect rein to my belly button with my inside rein, backed up by my outside rein for support, and push him to the outside rein with my leg. The horse, who should be educated enough to respond to direct and lateral pressure accordingly, and supple and light enough to react accordingly will usually round around the corner. If they're not then you need to take it down a notch and work on what I described above. If it's simple ignoring then I will stop my horse and side pass with the leg that he is ignoring, or I'll stop, do a 180 pivot on the haunches  using the leg he's ignoring and simply trot off in the other direction and resume my work.

Answer 3

work on a large circle. Get him working on the bit (flexing down with some bend in his neck), make sure he is bending around your leg. When you are turning and he falls in, use your inside leg to push him back out, use a bit more contact on the outside rein to help pull him out. But dont rip on his face or lose the bend in his body or downward flexion. He should not turn his face out that way, if he is, you are using too much outside rein, his whole body needs to move out but stay flexed down and bent to the inside. Keep his face towards the inside. to know you have enough inside bend you should only see a small part of your bridle, too much and you would see his eye. good luck!!

Answer 4

Try moving your outside leg completely off of him when you use inside leg contact.  If your leg and rein contact are firm enough, he will not speed up.

Answer 5

Start on big circles so the horse does not have to bend as much. When his bend improves over time, decrease the circle size.

When bending keep your inside leg on quite strong and keep your outside hand back to stop him going faster. Helf halt if he still ignores the hand. If you feel him falling in give him a little kick on the inside.

By the sound of it you are applying pressure on the outside reign but it is constant. Don't do this because if you perminently pull hard on the reigns then the horse will fight it and go faster, then you pull more and its a vicious circle. Half halting will slow your horse down and then he will be more balanced.

Answer 6

Sorry this is just rider error... when he circles or turns in the paddock, he wouldn't fall in..

How to fix it? That's fortunately quite simple.

Aids for turning left.

Think, prepare

Weight

Leg

Rein

So prepare to turn left ( or circle left), look where you are going.

Weight, shift your weight slightly into your inside seat bone placed slightly forward of the outside seat bone.

Leg, place inside leg at girth and outside one behind the girth.

Rein open up the inside rein away from his neck (use soft hands - thumbs up, and move your hand away from his neck like opening a gate with the back of your hand). Give with the outside rein forward - but don't give away the contact.

Your upper body is most likely causing the problem from shortening your body from your inside hip to shoulder. So keep upright, turn your shoulders in the dirrection of movement but don't lean in.

I'm very familiar with this as this had been 'my' rider fault at one stage!

Good luck, happy riding. Great question, I struggled for a long time with this until I learned to lead with the weight in my inside seat bone.

Answer 7

It sound like you need to keep your inside shoulder back farther. You're doing everything right, just keep your shoulder back.

Answer 8

I'd start at the walk for this. act like he's never been taught this and train him from the walk, get him responding better to your aids and signals at the walk before advancing. also ground work and i find someone else lunging him while you focusing on training works really well too.

Answer 9

When they constantly lean into the circle, and go faster and faster when you cue them not to, sometimes they're having difficulty balancing.

In this case, all the cues in the world may not help.  

Once you are cantering well in a straight line, when you reach the corner put your weight in the outside stirrup.  Try to keep your weight there through the turn.    If he's weak or unconditioned in the back end, this will help him a great deal.

To help with the balance and conditioning, do small circles at the trot.  Do spirals, where you start large and get smaller and smaller until it's tiny, then widen out again.

Remember, this is hard for him physically; it's not a mental thing.  Reward him with "good boy!"s and big pats when he gets even a few strides right at first, then, as time goes by and conditioning improves, ask for more.

Good luck!