Flexing To The Outside On Left Rein

[cassiejane]

My horse has a problem on the left rein.  In ridden work he tends to look to the outside and has real difficulty in flexing to the inside.  He is currently quite unbalanced on both reins and finds it difficult to work through correctly, he tends to manage this for a few strides and then lifts up his head and runs for around 10 strides, its as if it is aching due to undeveloped muscles and he is resting by running out of it.

On the lunge he is ok on the right rein, but on the left rein he gets himself into a real tizzy and runs away, bucking and cantering and looks quite distressed, so I have decided that lunge work is too much for him at the moment....dont know if this is the right thing to do or whether I should persevere with him on this, but my instinct says no especially as I am not particularly experienced at lunging and wonder if he could end up hurting himself if this behaviour continues.

I can find no soreness in his back, although he seems unhappy with his bit so perhaps a change there might help.

I guess I wondered if anyone had any exercises which might help me to make him more flexible on both reins and help him to develop the right muscles (he is definitely very upside down at the moment and does have a tendency to think upwards and backwards if he is pushed too hard)

 

[lisaNW]

Your horse sounds more like mine every time you post!  :lol:

Carrot stretches might help with flexibility - standing next to his side & offering a carrot in such a way that he has to stretch his neck around towards his quarters/back to take a bite (start next to a wall so he can't just walk round!).  Gradually he should be able to reach further round - I'd do it on both sides though.

 Also getting him to step across i.e. lateral work - I'd love to sound all expert and explain how to do it on the ground, but my attempts are a bit haphazard so will let someone else make suggestions on that one!

Lisa