Need help with the left lead!

Ok so me and my boyfriend have both been riding since like 2.. and he has a 10 year old quarter horse gelding.. this horse has the perfect lope EXCEPT when you ask him to lope off to the left he will pick up his sholder like he is going to take it, then at the last second he drop it and picks up the right lead.. we have done everything we can possible think of to help him pick it up.. and he will pick it up when we lunge him.. we really need help! We are open to any suggestion!

Will he pick it up with any other rider? If so sounds like a rider fault if the horse will pick it up on the lunge line. Good luck!! (:

Last year he would pick it up this just started this year..

You are using you leg to push his hip to the inside, correct?

My gelding had this same trouble.

If he knows forehand turns, ask him for the departure, if he picks up the wrong lead immediately stop him and punish his hip by kicking his hip to the inside and then IMMEDIATELY pick up the lope again. Smack his hip with the reins or crop if you have to, just make sure its a negative thing for him. Then when he picks up the lead, allow him to go into cruise and pet him some.

Get him adjusted? My mare was having the same problem, and now she's fine.. seeing that he is just recently doing it too?

We had him adjusted at the end of march.. thank you sorrelhorse I will have to try that..

Also try to push your inside hip forward a little bit. That helped me a lot with my one horse. It was a rider fault he knows his leads and I now know how to ask =) play a round with different things and see what works.

Also did he slip badly or play rough in the paddock. Another reason why horses don't pick up their leads is because they are stiff and sore in that shoulder or they aren't muscled enough and it hurts them to stress those muscles. Do lots of circles and figure eights and stuff.

Make it easier on him to start him in the canter in corners. The have to balance on their inside shoulder orotund the corners so they already have their weight on the correct lead.

I have a mare with the same problem! NOTHING was working. So I would start out by walking and trotting then loping to the left in a medium sized circle. Slowly start making the circle smaller and smaller, this got my mare on the left lead. When he does get on the correct lead give him tons of praise! When he doesn't get on the correct lead, repeat the process.

I'm an english rider, but I have recently been riding a green horse in lessons that has trouble picking up the left lead. My instructor has us get him into a pretty serious outside bend either in a corner or on a circle and then ask him to canter. It works the vast majority of the time, and he is now getting waaaaay better at picking up and holding that left lead

If it's a lead problem...its one of two things: a pain/phsyical issue OR a rider issue. The lead starts in the back, not the front...so his picking up his shoulder doesn't have a whole lot to do with it. He could be sore somewhere in the back end...like his hocks, stifle etc. If he's sore back there, he won't want to pick up the lead even if you ask him correctly...because it hurts.

Which brings me to the rider. Are you asking him consistently with your aids for a lope off? Is your body position, being balance and centered correct? How are you asking for the lope off?