Q. I broke my wrist and have been out of commission for 8 weeks now. My horse has been idle for the same amount of time! How do you propose I go about legging up the both of us to get us in condition for the upcoming show season?
By the way, my horse has not been confined to a stall; He lives outdoors 24/7 with my husband’s horse in the same paddock! But he’s been out of work since the end of December basically, with only a few indoor rides due to the horrid weather we’ve had here in the mid-west!
I want to go about this as safely and sanely as possible for both of us! He does lunge very well with side reins and is pretty laid back, but I really need some advice here!

A. I would spend the first week doing walk stuff. Remember, you can’t unring the bell. It’s better to leg him up slowly than to do too much too soon and have a sore or lame horse.
You can really do a lot in the walk. Medium walk to free walk transitions. Leg yields, circles. serpentines, walk/halt transitions, work on your position.
Start with about 20 minutes a day, and by the end of the week, work up to 30 min in the walk.
By week 2, add in a minute or two of trot each way. Gradually increase your time trotting so by the end of the 2nd week, you can trot 4-5 min in each direction. Make sure you walk and let him recover between trot sets. By the end of that week you should be up to a total of 30 minutes walk and 10 minutes trot.
Week 3, add in a canter once or twice around the ring each way. By the end of that week, you can canter a few minutes in each direction.
By week 4 you’re probably safe to resume normal work.
I would only lunge him if you think he’s going to be fresh. A lot of lunging is hard on a horse’s legs. If you do lunge him, ask someone else to do it so you don’t risk hurting your wrist if he pulls.

Q. I am just coming back to dressage riding after almost a 2 years of just hacking my old mare while waiting for my new mare to be old enough to ride. I had a very good start in dressage riding with a fantastic dressage coach (she is who got me hooked on the sport – she converted me from western riding) about 8 years ago, but then I moved away from her and for the next 6 years I went without coaching because there was just no dressage coaches available in my new location.
So I was left on my own with a bookshelf full of dressage books and the internet as my only guide. These resources were great for increasing my knowledge about dressage. I have developed a pretty decent eye, but I think in a way it almost hindered my riding because I have all this “knowledge” with no real understanding of how to apply it in a real situation. As a result, I have a whole lot of internal dialogue going on in my head when I ride – some of it is helpful, but more of it is distracting and counterproductive

A. You’re not alone! I think almost everyone struggles with negative internal dialogue. Just arm yourself with some coping skills ahead of time.

Here are a couple of suggestions:

1. Come up with a mantra such as a word or phrase that you can say automatically throughout your day will help a lot.
Use a phrase that means something to you like:

I can relax because my coach always keeps me on track.

I love my weekly progress.

My horse is very forgiving.

I’m so excited about learning.
2. If you hear yourself asking a low quality question like:

Why can’t I do this right? Or Why do I always pull on the left rein?, substitute a better question like:

What did I learn from this? How can I do this better? What coping skills do I need to learn to decrease my anxiety? How can I use this to my advantage? What tools do I need to add to my toolbox to handle this situation?
When you present your mind with a question, your subconscious searches for an answer. High quality questions lead to proactive answers.

Q. How can you tell which hind leg is your horse’s weak hind leg and what exercises can you use to strengthen it? And, how can you tell which side your horse needs to be stretched on and what exercises can we use to do that?

A. Check out the Ask Jane Q and A for July. There are a couple of questions on Uneven Contact and Strengthen a Hind Leg that should help.
A horse needs to be stretched on his hollow side. That’s the side that he seems more “bendable” as opposed to his stiff side. So if your horse’s spine likes to conform to the letter “C”, he’s hollow to the right and stiff to the left. You’d want to stretch out the right side of his body.
The first thing I’d do is supple to the inside when going left (+7/+1) and to the outside when (-7/0) going right. In both cases you’re stretching the right side of the body.
The weaker hind leg is the one on the hollow side. In the above example, the right hind leg would be weaker. So to strengthen the right hind, do shoulder-fore, shoulder-in, or renvers to the right, and haunches-in to the left. All of those positions put the right hind underneath the body so it carries weight and gets stronger.

Q. I’ve been working on getting the correct canter leads with my young guy. He picks up the right lead with no problems regardless of where we are. However, getting the left lead is difficult. I have to counter flex him significantly to get him to take the correct lead.
Background: Work at walk and trot – We’ve been working on straightness and he tends to lean on his left (inside) shoulder. In order to help strengthen his right hind, we’ve been working on some shoulder-fore, leg yield, and transitions between and within the gait.

A. While circling to the left, try spiraling in to a slightly smaller circle (18 meters or so) in rising trot.
Then leg yield with a bend around your left leg back out to the 20-meter circle. Make sure the bend is equal from nose to tail. He might try to just bend his neck and stay straight behind the saddle. So be sure your outside leg helps curve him around your inside leg.
As you leg yield out, either soften the inside rein a few times or do some +7/+1 suppling to the inside.
Do this exercise several times until it feels “easy”.
Once it feels easy, while you’re still leg yielding with a bend, sit the trot for a stride or two and ask for the canter depart just before you reach the 20-meter circle.

Q. My 10-year-old ex-racehorse is a challenge! He is a very intelligent horse that has learned through having had a hard life that it is better not to trust people.
He thinks it is better to trust his instinct than to listen to some crazy people! We took care of him because no one else wanted him. He has been “a difficult horse” because he was abused both mentally and physically when he came off the track. It has required a lot of hard work and patience to gain his confidence and get him relaxed and to trust us completely. There are still days when he gets tense and wants to flee from his troubles but less and less. What was looking very difficult to start with is now looking quite promising.
So, to my question:
We have now reached a point where he responds very well to the leg, and I can get him round when and where I want. Round, yes, but not through. This is what I’m struggling with right now.
I have a forward horse, responding to the leg, but when I close my legs, take the outside rein (“add”, “add”, “add”), he resists me. He gets very tense, I hold on, squeeze my legs, and he just does not want to go through with his hind. He rears or step sideways. Here I’m lost!
I don’t want to loose this confidence that I’ve built up with him with pushing him to hard, but, on the other hand, I feel he is ready to “take the contact”.
I can get him nice and round, but he is not honestly taking the contact, I do not get him to use his back and hind legs properly. What should I do? Is it to early to ask him? Is he not strong enough in his back to do this work? He has been very crooked, his left hind is weaker so he has leaned on the right rein but this is much, much better now.
I’m very careful riding him straight all the time. Shoulder-in works wonder, and he can do this very well. But I’m still struggling a bit with leg yielding. The same thing happens here. He does not want to use his hind legs under his body. He’s trying to compensate with his shoulder. And when I straighten him, he gets very upset.
Should I go easy on him or should I just be consistent and get him to accept that he needs to go through and work his hind legs under his body? Do I push him too much? Should I continue to “give”? I do get those amazing moments (seconds!) where I actually have him through, and I feel that I can do anything! He feels light, his back is arched and he is “with me”.

A. Think of the training scale. Your horse needs to be SUPPLE before you can connect him. I would do several sets of suppling him +7/+1 until he’s relaxed. Once he’s relaxed and his body can accept the connecting aids, give one more set of “supples” and IMMEDIATELY follow that with your connecting aids.
So you’d go: +7/+1,+7/+1, +7/+1….3 second connecting aids where you add, add, add through your closed outside hand. Then repeat that whole series starting with the suppling.
The other thing is to check that you’re not being too strong with your connecting aids. That will make him tense too. If your horse is in front of your leg, the connecting aids should only be SLIGHTLY more pressure. If you’re too strong, you’ll make him tense or resistant.
Also, keep in mind that if he’s really round, you’ll have a contact. It sounds like he’s just arching his neck. “Roundness” is the entire silhouette from hindquarters, over the back, through the neck into your hands.
Check out the January teleseminar on Connection. There’s also a written transcript of the teleseminar so you can skim the material to look for answers to your particular questions.

Q. . I’m having difficulty finding my balance at the rising trot. Do you have any suggestions?

A. Check out the exercise in the videos under Enzza. I have her do an exercise called “standing position.
Another good balance exercise is to change your posting diagonal by rising and extra beat rather than sitting an extra beat.
You can also get some practice in at home. Kneel on the floor with you knees at the same angle they’d be at if you had your feet in the stirrups. Then practice coming up straight and back down to your semi-kneeling position as if you’re posting.

Q. I love to trail ride, but my horse really does not like cars. But if I can relax, he will relax. So my question is: How do you envision riding past a school bus calmly if you haven’t done that yet?

A. Here are a couple of things to try.
1. Visualize a professional or someone you admire calmly riding by the school bus. When this is easy, “see” yourself doing it.
2. Coping Rehearsal-See you and your horse being tense going by the school bus but continue with your mental movie until you successfully make it by “unscathed”.