Help with tense horse-exercises wanted

[LokiSofi]

Misty it would appear has never really been schooled only pointed and jumped and charged around xc courses etc. She is very unbalanced, gets worried by leg aids (been steered in the past just off her mouth as if you go to give leg aids to move her over/bend her etc she shoots off), she also has a very high head carriage and falls in at corners and circles are hopeless. Anyway YO who is also my RI got on Misty the other day and rode her for me as i thought i was doing something wrong but it turns out its just misty doesn't understand a lot of the requests. YO gave me some exercises to do with her to work on keeping her calm (if she doesn't understand she gets worked up and tanks off) and to help her understand leg aids etc

But I was wondering if any of you can recommend any exercises to encourage her to stretch and lower her head and relax, plus anything to help her balance.?
I had a fantastic session with her tonight where by the end I was getting some pretty good circles and she was working calmly and had lowered her head etc.

 

[popularfurball]

I go extreme with the lowering thing and ride with arms out in front and reins on the buckles - do it in walk to start with! Just use legs to keep the movement, and encourage her to walk out - use your voice for slowing and speeding up too but be consistant with it. If she still cant lower, then try riding in a light seat to take weight off her back a bit and see if that makes any difference. With the reins like this there is no confusion about what you are asking - and steering open the rein wide, instead of pulling to tummy to prevent confusion there too.

I like half 15m/10m circles with a change of rein, serpentines and weaving through things and bending balancing things.

 

[tiga]

I've just come back from Badminton and I found the best book there. It's really a booklet and it's called 'Pilates and stretching: An exercise index for horse owners' by Gillian Higgins. The website is www.horsesinsideout.com

I have only read about half of it as I was so tired but it has loads of stretching exercises to do in hand. And it explains which exercises are good for which muscle groups. They also had a DVD and I wish I had bought it too.

I am going to try some of the exercises tonight. You do need carrots!

Worth having a look on the website.

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

I am really interested in this thread. My new 14.1 Connemara Ziggy - my first horse - is a project and sounds very similar. He is fine in walk, but doesn't always respond to leg or seat aids. When you ask him to trot he goes faster and faster and then quickly runs into canter, and it's really hard to stop him - squeeze release firmly either side does the trick in the end, but he sets his jaw and neck against you.

I want to do some in hand schooling exercises - there is an excellent book, here's a link http://www.amazon.co.uk/Schooling-Exercises-Hand-Suppleness-Confidence/dp/3861279649; but he is so stiff he can't always understand or do what I ask for, so any other thoughts and ideas to help him understand and respond are welcome.

It's worth mentioning that my RI, a Mary Wanless associate, rode him last week and had him going in an outline quite quickly through using her "bear down" technique. It worked astonishingly and he was happy, concentrating and responsive. I am not able to create the same response, and we've only tried it at walk, but clearly there's hope for him!