Hello JMR, just want to thank Karen for her advice on getting Jake off the forehand. I practiced a lot of transitions like you said and he really seemed to improve, and I took him out to a competition on the weekend where I won my dressage class of nearly 30 riders, by 8 points. Anyway, my EQ isn’t perfect in any of these photos (the camera always seems to click at the wrong moments!) and I know that in my salute photo I’m not central (I have minor scoliosis making my legs sit slightly unevenly, I’m working on finding a long term solution to this). But I just want to say thankyou for the advice, the first photos I posted were of his first dressage test just over 5 weeks ago and he’s gone from that point to winning by a long way. He was perfectly behaved, even with a million horses in the warm up ring, and in his combined training class he was fourth (beaten by my little sister by one point lol), but jumped a clear round and I was happy with that. He got rebroken last october, and had been sitting in a paddock being feral after finishing racing in 2010 and was completely unworked since then. Thanks again for the advice, it has really helped!

p.s., I’m having some trouble with teaching him the concept of lengthening his trot strides for a medium trot, my other young horse that I taught seemed to pick it up straight away but Jake thinks he has to run faster rather than bigger, is there an exercise that could help with this? Thanks

So over the last few weeks I’ve posted some photos of my OTTB, Jake at comps and schooling. I’ve been trying more and more to get him off the forehand, although sometimes I think he still does it going up the centreline. I have been doing a heap of transitions with him, and think that he’s getting there although this is the only photo I’ve got from the competition on the weekend where you can actually see him in kind-of focus! I still know there’s a long way to go but please judge this photo I came 2nd in one test and 3rd in the combined training (jumped a clear round)

Also, I’ve put in a picture of my other horse, Alpha. She has been out of work for probably 6-8 months and I’m just slowly bringing her back into light work (to get that enormous belly off her!). She is very very forehand heavy (she’s built downhill for a WB!), but is actually quite light in the hands at the same time, is there a way I can sit her up? I do a million transitions with her, she used to do Grade 1 Pony Club Dressage (shoulder in, simple change, leg yield, collected paces, extended/medium paces, travers, all that sort of stuff) before I spelled her. She’s had a lot of soundness issues which is why she’s only in light work (her hocks are pretty bad and her sacroiliac is also not functioning correctly) but I have had a lot of discussions with several vets about keeping her in light work and she’s not in pain (she’s been on HA shots). But yes that’s why her back legs look really awkward in this photo. So pretty much my question was, although she’s light in the hands with her head down there, is there a way to get her off the forehand? She’s a 12yo Hanoverian X TB mare, 15.3hh. Oh and yes she’s very overweight she loves the grass a little too much…

Last week I posted a picture of my OTTB at his first dressage competition, and the main thing that Karen picked up was that he was on the forehand. I’ve been working on transitions like you said to, I think he’s improved a bit since then? Anyway I’m not riding fantastically in these photos but is there some improvement in the horse? He’s got another dressage test on Saturday

This is Jake’s first dressage competition! He used to be a racehorse but he didn’t do fantastically at racing so I’m retraining him, hopefully to event but at this point he’s turning out to be alright at dressage. He’s a 6 year old TB, 16.1hh. He’s been in work since last October after a 2 1/2 year spell after retiring from racing in 2010 It was his first competition, he is still really really green so my tests were a bit all over the place but he worked nicely and behaved beautifully for his first real outing, he acted like he’s been doing it his whole life. Please judge, I put 4 pictures in but if you could possibly just give an overall idea of what Jake and/or I need to improve on would be fantastic. He came 6th out of 20 and 9th out of 15 in his tests.

So Jake had been in work for probably 10 weeks when this photo was taken. I bought him last January, then finished school and had him trained. He was originally a race horse, then sat in a paddock for two years with nothing done with him. This was his first time out, he was very excited but eventually settled. I know my hands are too low, my leg should be in more contact with his side, and my body is stiff and tipped forward, but what else can you see? As well as what can you see with Jake?

I’ve done some Pony Club and Equestrian Australia dressage on my other horse but I’ve been working my other horse for seven years now, Jake is far greener.

This was a hacking show; I’m aiming for him to be an eventer once he has had more work, but he did win this hack class, and won champion led hack, I was very proud of him.

Thanks in advance