getting round, and bending

hi, im deziray,

so im training a new mare, she has been broke for a year, and in the lessons with my dressage coach we are finding that she is very stiff and not wanting to bend. we put her a 20 meter circle and tried to bend her inside, then outside. she is good at a walk and trot at doing this but at canter she falls apart. as much outside leg I put on she still will bulge in her circle and try and "run away" with me. im not sure if I am doing something wrong or she is...any help or tools, or tricks I can use to help get her round?

thanks

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Permalink Reply by Jackie Cochran on April 29, 2014 at 6:00pm

I am sure other people can guide you better, but it sounds to me that the mare is too weak to handle a 20 meter circle at the canter. She sounds like she is sort of falling apart under you.

Hill work, starting at the walk, working up gradually to the trot. Transitions, both between and within each gait. Cavaletti. As you get her muscles stronger she will be more able to give you what you want. It takes time to build a horse up, so be patient.

Lay the proper ground work first. Then everything else is much easier to do. When she is ready it will seem almost effortless. If she is laboring she is not ready yet, not fit enough, not strong enough, and without the bottom that a horse needs to do advanced work.

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Permalink Reply by Deziray on April 29, 2014 at 7:42pm

Thanks :) I will defiantly keep all of that in mind!

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Permalink Reply by Lauren Doyle on May 14, 2014 at 8:02pm

Hi Deziray,

It is totally normal for a young horse (even if they are 15 and only been under saddle a year, I would consider them a "young horse" in knowledge) to lack balance in canter with a rider.

There are a few things I think are happening here.

1. Stiff and not wanting to bend: usually comes from too much in the hand and/ or asking too much too soon. The quickest and easiest way to fix this is, ride for shorter amounts of time with A LOT of stretching down. Give her the opportunity to find her own balance. My mentor (a dressage master) and another Dressage Master, Egon Von Neindorff, both recommended that you ride forward down (stretch down) ONLY for the first year with lots of transitions (you can find a whole chapter on this in his book).

This is very important- it builds their stomach, chest and hind end muscles as well as stretches their topline at the same time. It is only then that they can find their own balance so that you can do very little work to help them get there.

If you work on just getting your horse to relax, stretch down and do lots of transitions, walk to trot, trot to walk, walk to halt, trot to halt, and then work on leg yield in walk, the bending will begin to get easier and feel better to them. My mentor used to say, turn him into rubber! Think of yoga. Slow, stretching movements, gradually increasing the difficulty (leg yielding, etc) The stiffness will disappear.

2. Canter work: Jackie is exactly right; if your walk and trot were right, your canter would be right. The flaws in training are always magnified the faster you go. Her completely falling apart in canter tells you she really doesn't have balance in walk or trot either.

3. If you canter: do it for shorter periods. Ask for only 3 steps of canter and take her out BEFORE she loses her balance. Then ask for 3 more steps and again take her out BEFORE she rushes or breaks it. Try that for a week then gradually move up to 4 steps, then 5 etc. This will help her find her balance and give her more confidence as well.

Good Luck!