Had a great weekend at the show and scored pretty darn okay…65-70% over 6 tests…western dressage. One of our bugaboos is the lope to jog transition. He consistently falls out of the lope into a rough jog, for a few strides. Our lope to the left is excellent; to the right is tense and difficult for him. I’m working on his strength and bend to the right. Without over working the lope, what kind of exercises do you think will help strengthen him for the lope, without loping him to death, and thereby improve the lope to jog transition.
Lateral work at the trot.
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The Western equivalent of the half halt, usually called bump or check and produced more with your seat then rein.
You need to set him up and back a canter stride before you downshift or he will be rough trying to get off his forehand for a few jog steps. Think up and back for the second before you ask for the down transition and he should just slide into it like a cat slinking along. It takes feel and practice to master getting the subtleties down.
This is in addition to the lateral work mentioned above, not instead of. To avoid over drilling, work in the parts of the transition, not the whole move. Lightening him up on the forehand and being able to engage the rear end are the biggies. Learning to feel where he is in the canter stride when you ask will make things easier as well.
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Thanks! I was thinking lateral work, too. He does a fairly decent LY but shoulder fore is hard for him…and me. So need to do more of that. I also thought that spiraling out, LY, on the circle at the trot to help bend. And even 15m spiraling out to 20m at the lope, too. We’re working on stretch over the top line but that’s a slow go…he was a Morgan breed ring western pleasure horse so lowering his neck and reaching for contact is a hard concept for him…takes a lot of time and patience and strength. We did get 2 9s for his centerline entrance and finish…so sometimes straight is handy! lol
You can spiral in as well as out. Mix it up and finish forward in a straight line to prevent the shoulder drop into the well…yours and the horses. You can do spiral in then back out in the same excercise but I found the shape of the spiral and the horse body deteriorate as you progress…or regress since it tends to fall apart as you spiral back out.
Better to do parts correctly then the whole thing in a shambles, which is really easy if you don’t have eyes on the ground keeping you honest.
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If he’s tense and stiff to the right, he may be tight on the left side of his neck/shoulder.
lots of counter bending exercises. Counter canter. Square turns. Really get him working and lifting.
EDIT: typed “right” instead or “tight”, hopefully that makes more sense!
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Short update. I’m doing better with him. I laid out a 20m half circle the long way of the arena with B as the center of the half circle arc and marked the diameter with cones that are basically on the quarter line of the arena. Having those few extra feet in the diameter and the softer arc has helped with his balance. Also doing the spiraling within the circle. Thanks for the advice…I will be implementing as I go along.
