[mishaaliana]

Ok so I have 2 problems I need help with:
#1 My mare shies away from alot of things but she is afraid of one side of the arena. I've tried lounging her on that side, walking with her on that side and just letting her sniff the scarey stuff but she still acts scared of that area. When I'm riding her on that side she won't go close to the wall. She stares at it and runs sideways away from it and doesn't yield to my legs. I would like to know how to stop her from spooking at that side or at least stop running sideways to get away from it.

#2 She always keeps her neck slightly turned to the left when I'm riding her (unless she sees something scarey on the other side). How do I get her to stop doing that?

 

[Kayty]

Make sure she is totally tuned into your leg aids. Does she know how to leg yield? if not, I'd teach her to leg yield before you tackle the spooking. That way she knows what an inside leg means and she should move away from it. Don't slowly walk her up to it, let her sniff it etc. That shows her that she SHOULD be concerned, if you ride past without looking at it or changing anything about your riding, eventually she'll come to the realisation that you're not worried so she shouldn't be either.
When she goes to spook at that side, open your outside rein towards to arena wall, and put a strong inside leg on to really push her over towards the outside track and keep her straight.

As for having her neck to the left. She is not straight. I would check out her back, make sure nothing is out because often horses will carry themselves slightly crooked when there is tension in their back/neck/poll.
Minus the back issues, check yourself out as a rider. Without being aware, you may be riding crookedly which is in turn influencing her and making her crooked. The vast majority of riders have a crooked side, I used to be terrible to the left, but now I'm almost always even after spending a month almost every day being lunged without stirrups and reins, having my position adjusted constantly by my coach etc until my muscles were trained to stay in balance.
It may just be a case of you riding crookedly and that affecting the horse

 

[~*~anebel~*~]

Personally? I would call the vet. Get her vision tested and look for any joint issues (ie flexion tests and trotting on both hard and soft ground both in straight lines and lunging) and a "full work up".
Once you have ruled out physical issues, then you know for sure it is a training issue and you are not forcing a horse through pain. At that point I would get a trainer to work with the horse and then work with you and the horse to resolve the issue.

Good luck!

 

[tealamutt]

totally agree with Anebel. My horse has a spooking issue at one side of the arena too, we have worked through it with a trainer and it is a non-issue now, but keeping her neck cocked to one side screams vision problem.

 

[mishaaliana]

The vet says her vison is fine. It's been a few months and we havn't made much progress on either of these problems.

 

[Citrus]

I think that in order to get a horse used to something it is scared of, you take mini baby steps.... maybe feed her some grain near that side..... then next time take two steps into that side of the arena....next time take her over there and let her stand, sniff and smell everything..... when she shows a sign of relaxation, let her walk away from that side...... build a tiny bit more on each time.

 

[Deerly]

One of the ways we noticed my guy was not just "off" but actually lame was that he would always bend to the left and would be a big brat about turning right or bending right. I actually thought it was a training issue at first (he hadn't been ridden in about a year before this) but it turns out he was lame in the right front!

 

[mishaaliana]

Ok thanks, I'll try that. Any suggestions on how to get her to stop bending her neck to the left? No matter what i do, I just can't get her to keep her neck straight. Any tightening of the right rein makes her go in a circle, not bend her neck.