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Member
Posts: 6
| What are some exercises or drills you do to keep/get your horses shoulders up? |
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Regular
Posts: 82
| chaneyrush - 2016-11-23 7:16 PM
What are some exercises or drills you do to keep/get your horses shoulders up?
Serpentines (or you could use poles) at a walk then a trot. When I do this I like to really exaggerate my cues :) I also like to make slow and correct "perfect" circles and gradually add speed up to lope, side passing also seems to help as well. |
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 Off the Wall Wacky
Posts: 2981
  
Location: Louisiana | I just do a lot of counterarcs. I'll counter, and then go into a turn keeping the shoulder elevated. I also do a lot of perfect circles. Just at a walk.
My two finished horses have way different turning styles, but I can confidently say I don't have a barrel hitter or shoulder-dropper. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 509
| Get control of the hindquarters. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 702
Location: MN | Get em' nice and broke in the ribcage. Two-tracking and counter-arcing also help get the job done. |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| I really like Chris Martins theory on this topic. A horse moving properly forward working with his rear doesn't drop his shoulder for no reason. It's usually the result of the rider feeling the need to lift and pick up the shoulder - what goes up must go down.
We tend to pick up shoulders and move hips etc as bandaids to problems because we haven't taught the horse to do a very simple job - run straight to his spot by the barrel and turn it. When they start to drop in we start to lift instead of going back to slow work and reinforcing his job - run to his spot and turn. So we lift, which torques the spine and to find a comfortable position the horse kicks its hip out, so now we lift with the inside and kick the hip back over with the outside, which works for a little while until the horse finds another way to try and escape form a position that isn't really comfortable for him.
From a dressage standpoint a horse who is engaged from the rear will naturally elevate his front end to keep it out of the way of the rear end coming forward.
I am in no way probably doing justice to Chris's theory, but as someone coming from an English riding background it makes SOOOO much more sense to me and it's done wonders for my two horses, including one who was doing more running over barrels than around them when we went to ride with him. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 966
Location: Loco,Ok | The horse starts to lead with the inside shoulder how it feels. They are starting the turn a bit to soon. Slow up and step in shoulder first. Turn on a barrel is many ways same as turn on a cow. Most always ones get here. Not a clear signal. Rider starts the turn to soon and look in down at the barrel. Lean in. Rein off. When do those. Your supporting the horse. Drop the horses head. They have to do something to keep their balance,fall into the barrel,first thing hits most always the shoulder. Balance the horse with your feet not lifting on the head. Balance the withers under you keep them centered. Most time your watching your horses head also. That limits vision. Left hand,his lest foot,right hand his right foot,your chin his chin. Shorten your stirrups a bit. That brings you down to the horse,you stop reaching for your stirrups. When you reach your head comes back shoulder opens up. Knees come up and you get behind your horse and can't catch up. So your , pulling trying to get back in seat and catch up to the horse. Then at the next barrel,drop the horse and he falls into the barrel. There several body positions you have to change and show the horse where they need to get ready for the turn and make the turn efficiently. Eliminate unnecessary steps. The turns get smooth and snappy. |
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Member
Posts: 6
| Thanks for all the responses! Maybe this is a better question, what are the best ways to keep/get a horse on their hind end? I feel like I have my horses too front endy and pushing down into the bit verses being elevated and working off their hind end. |
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 Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | dashnlotti - 2016-11-23 7:46 PM
I just do a lot of counterarcs. I'll counter, and then go into a turn keeping the shoulder elevated. I also do a lot of perfect circles. Just at a walk.
My two finished horses have way different turning styles, but I can confidently say I don't have a barrel hitter or shoulder-dropper.
Ditto. If you watch Clinton Anderson's video series on Tritan (his paint futurity horse) you'll notice he warms up with ALOT of counter arcs and bending. Just watching that made me realize I could be adding a lot more of that into my routine. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1039
| I don't believe in dropped shoulders. What you are feeling is yur horse flattening out in the rib cage, elevating his head, dropping out his back and not pushing on his feet. First you will need to work on straight line collection and teaching your horse to bring his head down and bridle up while moving forward. Imagine there are two strings running down each side of your horse and if you bend too much in one direction you will break the string. So keep your horse square between your hands and work in straight lines until he can hold his frame. Once he can, then begin working circles with that same thought keeping forward motion and not letting him get really slow through the turn. And actually when he does drop his head and release his shoulders he will feel like he gets faster because he will be pushing from behind and extending his stride in the front end. It takes time to build muscles so it won't happen overnight but what you should see is a change in your horses conformation. Their back will broaden as their topline picks up and their neck will have more curve to it. |
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I AM being nice
Posts: 4396
Location: MD | Shoulders only fall once the hind end has disengaged... |
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