So I bought a new horse-6 year old Oldenburg mare-about a month ago. Both times I tried her she went really well. I could tell she preferred cantering on the left lead, but she didnt have any problem cantering or jumping off either.
Well, she does now. Unfortunately, because of moving into college right after I bought her, she sat for like two weeks before moving up here with me. Now that she’s up here and Ive ridden her several times, Im noticing a pattern. She wont canter on the right lead.
She’ll happily trot around, do circles, go over poles, serpentine, and what not in both directions. But she’ll only canter to the left. On the right, she’ll canter for a bit and then swap. If you make her turn or try and force her to stay on it, she just gets mad and swaps more aggressively or just flat out stops cantering. At first, she would get super pissy and actually give a solid buck, but I gave her a shot of depo and she’s much better now. Instead, she just gets super short and balled up before inevitably swapping and moving back out.
Ive put her on the lunge and in the round pen and she mostly only cross canters when going right. I can make her stay on it for like barely a single lap. Ive done it with tack and without tack and the result is the same.
She wont jump of the right lead-mostly because I cant keep her on it long enough to get to the jump-but she will land on the right and go a few strides before swapping. She’ll jump anything at any height off the left. And she’ll trot in either direction and land on either lead.
She appears to be perfectly sound. She runs around, bucks, jumps, etc without an issue. She went through an in depth pre-purchase exam barely a month ago and passed with flying colors.
So, my question is this: does it sound like an injury or that she is doing it out of pain, does it seem more like she’s doing it to be pissy and lazy and I’ll just always have to deal with it, or do you think it will simply go away with more conditioning and schooling?
