This message is from: "Starfire Farm, L.L.C." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Hi Nancy, Pamela's suggestion about hill work is an excellent one. One thing I would add is to ask your horse to go "round" and somewhat on the bit rather than with his head up or simply with his nose poking out. This will help encourage him to use his back as well. Start slowly, as this is hard work for any horse. You can start by walking up and down a hill several times to build him up slowly. Walking is actually better than trotting for developing the strength you want anyway. Keep the sessions short, 5-10 minutes is long enough to start. The hill doesn't have to be steep at all for the horse to benefit. Ref: working on picking up that elusive right lead; After you have throughly checked for possible medical problems, and if you don't find any, thoroughly check your body position while you are asking for that right canter. Often we don't realize how much we disrupt our horses' balance with our own clumsiness and lack of balance. This is especially true with young and green horses. If more of your weight is on the outside of his spine, it will throw off his balance to the outside. Make sure that he is "in" and not "through" your outside rein before you ask for the transition to canter. If his outside shoulder is not in line with the rest of his body, he will pick up the outside lead. You might practice feeling if his body is in line by working in a square pattern instead of in a circle. Kyra Kyrkland demonstrates the use of the square in one of her training videos. Start at the walk and go straight across the arena to the wall. Stop at the wall and, using your leg and rein aids, turn the horse (either direction) then proceed for about 20 meters, stop and turn again (your trainer can help you with the correct aids.) While you are turning your horse, be aware of any leaning of his shoulders or lack of response to your leg or rein aids. Any resistance or sluggish response in this exercise will be multiplied tenfold when you increase the speed to the trot, so take the time to get it correct at the walk. When your horse is stopping and turning reliably, walk through the corners without stopping, all the time paying close attention to your horse's balance and response (and to your balance and timing!.) Your horse should feel as forward through the corners as he does traveling straight. When things are going well at the walk, move up to the trot, but go back to stopping and turning first. Once that is good, you can start trotting through your turns. When your horse feels really balanced, and is turning reliably on the lightest of aids, you are ready to ask for a canter transition. Ask for the transition during the time, in the square, where you are just coming out of your turn. Make sure he feels balanced, between your aids, and has that "almost floating" feeling that he is capable of . Everything should be easy, with light leg aids and light rein aids, if it's not, then you need to return to where things felt good i.e. go back to turning at the trot. Reward your horse for the slightest try. This means that if he simply offers to canter, but doesn't quite get there, take it, reward, go back to a balanced trot and ask again. If he offers his correct lead, great. If he doesn't, simply try again. Make sure he doesn't feel punished for taking the wrong lead. Make sure that you stay balanced on him, that when he offeres to canter you go with him and you aren't restricting his forward movement by pulling back! This may take a long time but, one day, he will offer the correct (in your case right) lead. When he does, let him go for a few strides (it doesn't really matter where he goes!) and end the session. It will be there again, when you ask for it in the future, though you may have to prepare him for it again the same way. It will eventually take less and less time to prepare him for it. I have found it interesting that, with Fjords, when they learn something, they learn is very well. The youngsters and green horses will usually have a lead that they prefer to pick up. After they have learned to pick up the opposite lead, the new one is the one they prefer! So I have had to teach them the pick up the first lead, which was their "natural" one, all over again! I have experienced this with other breeds, but fjords seem to be particularly tenacious to staying with that new lead! Good luck, and above all, have fun! Beth
