Quite stiff and no bend at the trot, exercises to help?

[GeorgieLu]

I’m bringing my 18 year old QH mare back into work after several years of semi-retirement. She was mostly a trail horse but occasionally I would work with her in the arena (when one was available). I’m actually wanting to do some western versatility on her, but I feel the issues I am looking to address would be better sorted out in a dressage forum. I’m an English rider myself, all my formal training was by eventing trainers, long ago in a galaxy far, far away!

She does not have great conformation, her back legs are quite straight and stiff and she has a bit of an ewe neck, so I am not expecting any sort of great collection or anything, but at the moment I can’t even get her to look to the inside when trotting around the arena. At the walk she bends nicely, gives to inside rein pressure and moves her shoulder away from my inside leg. As soon as I ask for the trot, she speeds up a lot, looks to the outside and falls inward on her shoulder.

If I lunge her, her trot isn’t as fast but she is still looking to the outside and falling in.

I should mention that at the moment I am riding her in a sort of rope halter/hackamore. I would like to her respond to my rein aids before going back to a bit because I don’t think riding off a bit will make much difference in this situation, at least at first. When I do transition her into a bit, I am going to start with a snaffle she has worn before and ride her with contact and then move into teaching her neck reining as we try some western riding.

I’m looking for some basic exercises that would help her straighten out and bend at the trot. Lunging, ground work and riding exercises. I may lunge her a little bit in sidereins to help her balance herself and accept contact (its been a while since I’ve ridden her on contact), but I would like that to be just a small component of what I am doing with her.

My guess is that I need to be riding lots of transitions with her around the whole arena (which by the way isn’t very big) and out on the trail. What else may help her?

Thanks for much for any advice!

[Scribbler]

Do you know how to do basic flexions, shoulder fore, and shoulder in at the walk in hand and saddle, and trot in saddle?

You probably need a snaffle bit to do these.

You can also do shoulder fore/shoulder in on the ground or one a small circumference longe line (like one of those 12 foot horsemanship ropes). Basically getting her to bend to the inside and have a slight three track. It will be probably be hard for her, but do it gently and persistently over time.

[merrygoround]

Time for your leg and seat to go to work. If you don’t already know how to regulate her pace with your seat, you will need help with that.

As far as the bending. Start with a 20 m circle . Your inside leg keeps her off her inside shoulder, perhaps backed up with a tap of the whip if she doesn’t respect your leg. Your outside leg brings her shoulder around. Since the head and neck are in front of the shoulders, it should take just a gentle feel on the inside rein to keep her head and neck in line with her body. Your outside lower leg must keep the hindquarters following the track of the forehand with out swinging out.

I would play with this bending first at the walk. When you do move to the trot, keep your trot to a half circle at first. Even less if you become disorganized.

[atlatl]

@GeorgieLu

I’m bringing my 18 year old QH mare back into work after several years of semi-retirement.
…

You’re asking quite a bit from this mature lady. I’d treat her like a horse recovering from injury and slowly bring her back, maybe start jogging/trotting on straight lines moving to gentle big turns.

Alternately, you could treat her like a baby horse and bring her along slowly that way.

The book “Back to Work” is a decent resource.

[Manni01]

I agree with starting to bend her in the walk on a circle. and I think there are 2 excercises which i always liked.

You go on a nice round circle. Be very precise about the line. Do not allow your horse to toggle around. Then on the open side of the circle bend your horse a little more to the inside and push the hind legs out. I think in the beginning you might get a lot of resistance. You have to be persistent and calm. You are going for a type of leg yield but it might take you some time to get there… And you will find out once you are able to move the hind legs to the outside (not too much it’s more about the horse giving in and keeping a forward flow) many of your bending problems are solved already 😀.

The next excercise I like is going on a circle and circling in until you are on a volte in the middle of the circle. Don’t do it too small in the beginning. Once you are on the volte you circle back out. And again push her hind legs out a bit while doing it. again a kind of legyield while circling…

You will be amazed how nice and smooth your horse will get once it reacts to your aids. Do it in the walk first and once you are really good in the walk you can try it in the trot…

[alibi_18]

@GeorgieLu

(…) She does not have great conformation, her back legs are quite straight and stiff and she has a bit of an ewe neck, so I am not expecting any sort of great collection or anything, but at the moment I can’t even get her to look to the inside when trotting around the arena. At the walk she bends nicely, gives to inside rein pressure and moves her shoulder away from my inside leg. As soon as I ask for the trot, she speeds up a lot, looks to the outside and falls inward on her shoulder. (…)

Like @atlatl said, you are expecting a lot from this mare.

How about a good check up first?

After a long hiatus from work, at that age and with her not so great conformation, you should be utterly cautious with bringing her back to work.

She doesn’t seem quite fit enough yet to trot.

[GeorgieLu]

@atlatl

You’re asking quite a bit from this mature lady. I’d treat her like a horse recovering from injury and slowly bring her back, maybe start jogging/trotting on straight lines moving to gentle big turns.

Alternately, you could treat her like a baby horse and bring her along slowly that way.

The book “Back to Work” is a decent resource.

This is sort of what I was thinking. Trot only on straight lines, work on the bend in the walk only. The only down side to this is the size of my arena means very short trots, but I’ll work with it.

I do a great deal of lateral work in hand with my other horse, so I am quite comfortable working on movements like shoulder-in from the ground. It sounds like it would be helpful to work her on the ground first on these movements before encumbering her with me in the saddle.

Although she has been in retirement, she has been on pasture, and was a fit trail horse for many years. Her overall fitness is excellent for her age (Most people are pretty surprised when they learn her age) it’s just her suppleness I am concerned about.

I do plan on having a conversation with the vet about her as I have other horses who are due for a checkup in a few weeks. We’ll assess if she needs a full look over before working more.

I am not expecting her to be at peak fitness, and I am not expecting results overnight. I’ll start with working her more on the ground and on trail rides to bring her back into riding slowly then move back to working in the arena under saddle.

Thanks for all the great input and suggestions!

[Edre]

I agree with a lot of the above that talk about starting this mare off slowly (almost as if she were a rehab case). Once you do get to the point where you are trotting on more than straightaways, I would continue to think this way - that means no extreme curvature for a while (no smaller circles that are harder on them - build up to it). So before you go to exercises like spiralling in and out on circles (fabulous, but maybe too much for her right now?) I would look at exploring serpentines, figure eights, and shallow loops. I think a lot of the times these mechanisms can make it easier for riders to provide horses all the correct aids that a horse needs for a good bend (inside leg, outside rein, giving inside hand). You can also look at flexion/counterflexion on a circle but I think that might be something to introduce after you can work on bend/change of bend across your change of direction.

One thing to assess: Some horses are excellent at thwarting bend because even before you ask them to bend, they must be straight (and some horses are masterful at avoiding being straight). With the way you describe her conformation, plus her age, I would really take the time to see if that might be an issue. Taking her off the wall to take the wall away from her (typically what ends up happening is the outside shoulder and the outside hind both are “glued” to the wall. By physical build - horses are wider behind than they are in front - this means they are already crooked, with their shoulders more to the outside than the haunches) may help with this as well. The exercises above introduce a change of rein/change of bend off the wall, which can also help in this situation since there’s no physical marker for a horse to really want to lean on.

A note: some of these exercises are probably not going to be super effective with a horse that doesn’t have much dexterity under saddle in a rope halter. Having a bit to really establish an inside/outside rein connection with the mouth (appropriate contact required, standard caveat) is only going to help you out here imo.

[Scribbler]

Yes, I agree with putting a nice jointed snaffle on a horse like this. You can’t really position the head for lateral and flexion work in a halter. Once the horse has it, you can do this work in halter, but not when you are teaching it.

[Sadiegem]

We are on the same path! I’m bringing my 15 year old qh back from an almost 2 year hiatus with only pony rides as ‘work’. She also is stiff and not thrilled with this whole bending thing. I joke that giraffe is her spirit animal. But, she’s coming around and relaxing into the work. We do a lot of walking serpentines, big circles, large teardrop changes of direction, and will turn up the centerline and ask her to move towards the long side, taking the entire length of the ring to get there so a not steep line. Just walk and trot right now. The canter makes her frantic so we won’t address that until she has more strength and balance.

Good luck with your mare!