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  Discussion on Horse Does Nose Dive in Downward Transition
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Posted on Saturday, Apr 24, 1999 - 11:48 am:

I ride an 8 yr old TB jumper with a little weakness in his back and quarters; his owner and I work on lots of circles and transitions, warming him up well with plenty of neck stretching, and now have him going consistently on the bit, nice and round at the trot; not always as well at the canter. Now I'm working with a dressage instructor on halt-canter-halt transitions and although we can get a nice balanced canter, the horse will nosedive at the halt, yanking his head forward and down hard, pulling me forward and out of the saddle. Instructor says, sit DOWN in the saddle and keep your arms bent, don't let him do that! I've gone back to walk-halt and trot-halt to work on this, realizing he does the same thing then but not quite so violently. Any ideas for keeping him balanced through the halt? Merely locking my elbows at my side and trying to strongarm him doesn't do it!

Posted on Sunday, Apr 25, 1999 - 1:31 pm:

It sounds like your horse has a real tendency to get on the forehand, not uncommon with horses with weak hind and back. also, nosediving on downward transitions can become a habit (a rather annoying one too). On the downward transitions are you keeping your legs on through the transition so that he cna come up under himself with his hind quarters?? another question is are you releasing the reins quickly enough when he halts so he isn't trying to avoid pressure?? Have you checked his teeth to see that there are no problems?

a technique you can try is to do walk-halt-backup transitions. So that you walk forward, halt and then immediately back up. AFter a few rounds of this your horse will start to prepare himself for the backup by bringhing his hindend under and keeping his head up. You can also do this from a trot and a canter (the faster the gait the more difficult the exercise so that you should start with a walk).

I would also lunge him with side reins to help develop the roundness and so that during the downward transistions if he DrOps his head he will be banging himself. He'll quickly learn not to do that.

good luck

Teresa

Posted on Tuesday, Apr 27, 1999 - 8:40 am:

Thanks Teresa, all excellent and sensible suggestions--I bet I don't release the reins immediately enough, and it puts us into a pulling contest. So I'll get to work! Spider
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