The ever-popping left shoulder - exercises to help?

[Sunsets]

Long time amateur rider here - I’m schooling First Level with the mare I’ve leased for the last 5 years. I know Miss Mare is bulging her left (inside) shoulder and resisting stepping up and under with her left hind. I add inside flexion, I add inside leg, and we collapse into a smaller circle. I try riding the long side, thinking “shoulder fore” and we start drifting off the rail.

Tracking right is generally easy for both of us, we have appropriate bend to the inside and maintain a steady contact.

I know I need to get stronger (and I’m taking regular lessons to get eyes on the ground and help me with this). But I’m hoping some of you have some specific exercises you have found helpful for this issue.

Also, any guesses as to what I’m doing with my body that might be blocking her from wanting to step up and under? Or that’s encouraging her bulging that shoulder to the inside?

Thanks in advance.

[atlatl]

It’s the right shoulder for me. Here’s what my trainer has me do. Stop thinking about bend and think about being straight. If she pops the left shoulder out, go track left, turn up centerline and leg yield off of your left leg to quarter line, rub or tap the offending shoulder with the whip to help get the message across, try to go straight on quarter line, if she pops the shoulder out again, leg yield to the long side.

Rinse and repeat, a lot.

good luck.

[Dutchmare433]

For shoulder falling in, I’d generally go to renvers tracking right, though if her left hind is the weak one, you’d be strengthening the right hind more. So perhaps travers tracking right?

Both renvers and travers are super exercises for getting correct bend. From there you could go back to shoulder fore and shoulder in to the left, achieving the correct bend, getting her to lift the left shoulder and step up and under with the left hind. Start at the walk. Both renvers and travers are some of my favorite exercises for eventually getting the straightness you desire.

Or a baby version, track left at walk and do a leg yield, head to the wall, so haunches in, shoulders on track, but body straight. I can probably come up with some more exercises, the cowboy I work with had me fix this issue with my three year old with baby turns on the forehand and haunches plus changing the way I was posting to guide his shoulders out/straight when tracking right.

[ladyj79]

I had a very successful grand prix rider and judge come look at a five year I had. He was very green and bulged his right shoulder. I rode him first and she told me to elevate the right hand. High. Higher. Until he quit bulging. Then down. And keep doing this everytime he threw that shoulder in.

Worked then, and has worked with every horse since when this is an issue, and it pretty soon stopped being an issue.

Simple and effective

[Mango20]

The raising the hand on the side of the bulge trick works for my horse, too.

[khall]

I open the outside rein to draw the shoulders to the outside. Make sure you are not sitting more to the left, in fact I sit more to the outside to help the horse shift their weight to the outside shoulder.

Some exercises to help with this issue. Counter SI, bent left moving right. I do SI to counter SI on serpentine line. LY right. I do a good bit of in hand work, the SI to counter SI on serpentine line in hand. Spiral out on the circle in SI.

[ThreeFigs]

You’re getting excellent advice here. One other thing – make sure you are sitting balanced and even. Weighting one seatbone more than the other and/or riding a bit crooked is a common rider fault. This makes it harder for your horse to be straight. Have your instructor watch you from behind to check for asymmetry.

[netg]

What is your horse’s rib cage doing at the same time? If there is rotation in the rib cage, it will unconsciously cause you to sit unevenly and to reinforce crookedness.

If the rib cage isn’t twisting and you are straight, the hand lifting will soften that jaw if it’s locked, allowing the correct bend.

Leg yielding off the inside leg will help, and will also help you realize if your horse is leaning on that leg - which would prevent you from using that leg to create bend. Similarly, doing haunches in will help get the bend you need - more useful if it’s a rib cage issue, if you also get the responsiveness off your leg and can switch to shoulder in once you have that.

My guy used to get tight in the long muscles along the top of his back, and usually specifically on the left side. The result was he would drop his left shoulder and lean in on it, and instead of going straight along the rail would veer in. He also would twist his rib cage in the process. Because of the specific muscles which were tight, doing haunches right stopped the left bulge issues by working that muscle loose and longer.

[Sticky_Situation]

The advice here so far is a good start … if the horse is wanting to fall on the inside shoulder and lock up the left side while tracking left, it can help to raise the inside hand slightly to help prevent the shoulder from falling while using the inside leg to encourage bend through the ribcage.

However, you must be careful not to become too dependent on moving the horse off the inside aids that you forget to maintain a connection with the outside aids. In dropping the shoulder and “blocking up” the inside of her body, she may lose the connection from your inside leg to your outside hand, so make sure that even as you try to soften the inside jaw, you keep a feel of that outside rein and keep riding her up into the steady, quiet contact you have on the right rein, even when she is wanting to bulge to the inside. You need to show her where you do want her to go, not just prevent her from doing the wrong thing. I had a very similar issue with my horse and it was very helpful for me to think not of him being “heavy” or “falling in” on the left, but rather being “empty” in the right rein contact.

Good luck!

[Sunsets]

Oh wow, great suggestions.

I’ve tried holding my inside hand higher, but maybe I wasn’t consistent enough in the correction. Also, that’s a very good point about making sure she’s not bulging her ribcage.

Lots to work on, thanks again.

[ladyj79]

Just a note, it’s not holding the inside hand higher, it’s lifting the hand until the horse responds, then putting it down. You may initially have to lift quite high. It works because it is a quick basically unavoidable correction and you stop allowing the horse to go incorrectly, rather than asking him to go correctly, if that distinction makes sense.

[merrygoround]

A horse dropping on the inside shoulder is ignoring your inside leg, , your knee and thigh specifically. So close your knee and thigh, no response,- tap shoulder with whip. You may have to tap sharply initially. Be consistent, ask, no answer, tap. I have had this work with hardened offenders.

Reins control the head and neck, and indicate softly direction, your body controls their body. If your body did not control the body you would never be successfully able to ride with counter flexion.

[atlatl]

[QUOTE=Sticky Situation;8964205]
The advice here so far is a good start … if the horse is wanting to fall on the inside shoulder and lock up the left side while tracking left, it can help to raise the inside hand slightly to help prevent the shoulder from falling while using the inside leg to encourage bend through the ribcage.

However, you must be careful not to become too dependent on moving the horse off the inside aids that you forget to maintain a connection with the outside aids. …Good luck![/QUOTE]

Excellent point!