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Teaching leads on the ground

1K views 8 replies 5 participants last post by  tipzy 
#1 ·
Hello! So just a little background. I take lessons regularly (hunter/jumper) and I leased a horse for a few months and I was asked by a few owners who saw me working with the leased horse (he was a mess!) to work with their out of shape horses.

One of the horses I work with is a 17 year old, 17hh saddlebred mare named gray lady. She hasn't been ridden in a long time, and the owner told me she hadn't ever even lunged her (she's owned her for some time now). I lunged her and it went well, I can definitely tell she's had a lot of training -- she even will free lunge in a circle around me in an arena!

But now my problem is she isn't picking up the correct lead when we track right. She will canter when you ask, but picks it up wrong every time.

So what do I do when she picks up the wrong lead when I'm lunging her? To encourage the correct lead, I mean? I give her a fairly big circle -- she's a real leggy girl -- and I know she's pretty out of shape so I try not to put unnecessary strain on her. And she cannot canter long (which is understandable).

I'll bring her down to a trot, ask her to canter again... rinse and repeat the same thing happens until she's puffing too hard for me to comfortably push her forward anymore.

Under saddle, I plan to work on spiraling circles and serpentines at the trot with her as well. I just want to make sure there's not something else I could be doing!

And obviously I know getting a vet or chiropractor out would be a solution... But she isn't my horse and she doesn't show any signs of pain. I want to try everything I can to get her to pick up the correct lead before I tell the owner that I think she needs to be checked out by a vet! Thanks :D
 
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#2 ·
Hello! So just a little background. I take lessons regularly (hunter/jumper) and I leased a horse for a few months and I was asked by a few owners who saw me working with the leased horse (he was a mess!) to work with their out of shape horses.

One of the horses I work with is a 17 year old, 17hh saddlebred mare named gray lady. She hasn't been ridden in a long time, and the owner told me she hadn't ever even lunged her (she's owned her for some time now). I lunged her and it went well, I can definitely tell she's had a lot of training -- she even will free lunge in a circle around me in an arena!

But now my problem is she isn't picking up the correct lead when we track right. She will canter when you ask, but picks it up wrong every time.

So what do I do when she picks up the wrong lead when I'm lunging her? To encourage the correct lead, I mean? I give her a fairly big circle -- she's a real leggy girl -- and I know she's pretty out of shape so I try not to put unnecessary strain on her. And she cannot canter long (which is understandable).

I'll bring her down to a trot, ask her to canter again... rinse and repeat the same thing happens until she's puffing too hard for me to comfortably push her forward anymore.

Under saddle, I plan to work on spiraling circles and serpentines at the trot with her as well. I just want to make sure there's not something else I could be doing!

And obviously I know getting a vet or chiropractor out would be a solution... But she isn't my horse and she doesn't show any signs of pain. I want to try everything I can to get her to pick up the correct lead before I tell the owner that I think she needs to be checked out by a vet! Thanks :D
Something I've always done to get the horse to canter correctly on the lunge line is I would wait until their body is aligned correctly at the trot before I asked for the canter. Set them up for success. Some horses simply don't get the stop and repeat technique.

Push her to trot as fast as her long legs will take her, wait till her body is right for the correct lead. If you start pushing her up into the canter and you see she is about to take the wrong lead, don't let her lope up. Bring her back down to the trot. Once she does finally pick up the right lead, lope her around for a bit. She will be grateful she isn't long trotting for her life LOL

This can take a while to master, especially if you don't have an eye for the horse's body position before they lope off. But the more right answers she has loping off, the quicker she will understand that's what you want. Don't let her take the wrong answer. Like I said, set her up for success.
 
#3 ·
thanks!

Thank you! :) "trotting for her life" is a GREAT description of that super-fast-I-wish-you-would-just-canter trot! The more I work with her, no doubt the more familiar I will get with her body. She takes a while to get cantering (and a lot of pressure to do it!) Thank you for your tip! I'll be paying a lot of attention to her legs! :D
 
#5 ·
Provided that pain is not the cause for not wanting to take the lead, when you get her cantering on the lunge line and she takes the wrong lead speed her up. Make sure your giving her enough room, when you speed her up it will be more difficult to circle on the wrong lead and she should switch. When she does switch let her go around one or two circles, then let her trot, change directions a few times then ask again.

Since she is 17, and out of shape and tuning it may be uncomfortable for her take the lead and you will have to progress slowly until she is better in shape.
 
#6 ·
Provided that pain is not the cause for not wanting to take the lead, when you get her cantering on the lunge line and she takes the wrong lead speed her up. Make sure your giving her enough room, when you speed her up it will be more difficult to circle on the wrong lead and she should switch. When she does switch let her go around one or two circles, then let her trot, change directions a few times then ask again.

Since she is 17, and out of shape and tuning it may be uncomfortable for her take the lead and you will have to progress slowly until she is better in shape.
Since she is 17 and out of shape. I think your advice will do more harm than good.

Do not let her run around on the wrong lead
 
#7 ·
Being older and out of work, she will have some rebalancing and remuscling to do. She's probably not taking the wrong lead on purpose. It's more likely that she doesn't feel balanced enough to do it. Give her time on the lunge walking and trotting, stretching down and remembering how to use her muscles correctly.

For an out of shape horse, even 20m is a small circle to canter in. Especially for the bigger ones!
 
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#8 ·
When trotting ask for the canter while the outside hind is coming of the ground. It give her a couple of seconds to register what you want and for her body to respond. Instead of tipping her nose toward you allow it to tip outward. If you watch horses tear around the nose is always tipped toward the driving leg, not the lead which helps with balance. I've watched many people struggle with this from the saddle become it's been advocated to bend the horse into the circle. By barely tipping the nose to the outside it's never been a problem for me but I feel for the hind leg and push off when it's leaving the ground.
 
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