Downhill Balance and Speed Issues

[Kelli]

The past few weeks Bella and I have moved on from the round pen and have been hitting the trails around the house. For the most part she has done fairly well and we haven't had too many bumps (here comes the but...). But, when we go down the mountain she has been speeding up and not paying attention to where she is putting her feet. She has been stumbling quite a bit and even then she doesn't lose speed. If anything her momentum causes us to gain speed. A few times she stumbled so bad, I was sure we going down but she managed to recover.

I have tried pulling her back but she comes to a complete stop. So we are either full speed ahead or basically sputtering along. When following another horse we are constantly running into their rear ends and when leading we are way ahead. I'm not sure if I should be circling her on the hills or just keep on trying to pull her back and eventually she will get it.

Is this downhill speed thing and stumbling issue something she will eventually grow out of or is this a training type issue? I've also noticed that she even on flat trails she tends to drag her back feet quite a bit. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated!

[mare]

I suspect this is the result of a lack of strength. It will most likely resolve itself in a few more months if you continue riding over a variety of terrain.

[WashingtonBay]

I think it's a weight on the forehand issue and failure to collect herself. It's harder work to set her weight back and use her rear end, than it is to simply let gravity pull her down the hill.

Between your two options, I would make her stop, if that means you go one step and stop, sit up and try to get your weight, and hers, off the forehand. I talk to Bay... "easy now, watch your feet."

Other exercises that help aid her collection and strengthen her rear end engagement will only help. When walking on the flat, drive her forward into the bit. She'll get in better shape the more you engage her.

[natisha]

She won't outgrow it on her own. She needs to learn to stop or slow by you using your seat. Pulling on the reins will pull her head up, she'll brace against it, lose her balance & speed up, as you found out. She needs to be able to lower her head & rock back on her hindquarters for balance down a hill.
Teach her to slow & stop using your seat on the flat. Ask for only a few steps before stopping. When she does that well try a smallish hill, step & stop. Maybe try leading her down a few so she gets the idea. Just don't ever get in front of her.
Circling on a hill can be dangerous.

[JackieB]

Teach her to slow & stop using your seat on the flat. Ask for only a few steps before stopping. When she does that well try a smallish hill, step & stop.

This is what worked for me and Buster. He had a terrible habit of speeding up and I had a couple of hard falls at the bottom of hills as a result. It was very scary.

So I started really working with getting him to listen to me on the flat. Where I could do whatever I needed to in an environment where I was comfortable. Then, I slowly worked up to very small hills, then bigger and bigger until we got it.

The key was getting control with my seat and light rein on the flat and going from there.

[Tiz]

Good grief, Jackie. I shouldn't laugh, but that's quite the visual.

Whoa! Whoa! No! No! Buster! Buster! Buster! AHHHHH!

Sorry, but I'm the type of person that laughs, and when I fall down, the first thing I do is look around to see if anyone saw me.:p

[WashingtonBay]

If you fall down in the woods and no one sees it, did it really happen? ;)

[Tiz]

Uh. No!

[natisha]

If you fall down in the woods and no one sees it, did it really happen? ;)Not unless you make a noise

[carla]

I had this EXACT same problem with Jack last year. Except he wouldn't get too fast, he would want to crow-hop sideways down hills, slinging his nose side to side- LOL. At first I just knew his feet or back were hurting him, but then I realized he had no balance going down hills. So I did just like JackieB said.. I started making SURE I kept a very light handle on his mouth- just to "secure" his excitement- (I had always been taught the, "give him his head" method of hill descent) and sitting waay back in my seat, putting all my weight on his butt. Now I can literally feel him almost sit his way down hills, and no more hopping or nose slinging. And usually I only have to give a little reminder "bump" on the rein on the way down. He does great! And like WB, I also talk him through it with a soothing voice. I think you'll see results in no time like this.

And I agree, even if you have to go one step and stop- one step, stop- it's still safer than getting up too much speed! :eek:

[carla]

And too, if she needs to take it back even a step further, do you have any smaller hills you could do on the ground with her? Get a new view of what exactly she's doing? I dunno, might help.

[Kelli]

Thanks for all of the insight and input guys. We are having a beautiful day today, so I am going to head out and take Bella for another spin. Looking back I was so focused on controlling her and nervous about us going down that I didn't pay much attention to my seat. Maybe she was feeding off of my anxiousness and maybe I was leaning forward without knowing. If she doesn't show any improvement at all, then it is back to working on the flat and the starting and stopping.

I was also taught that you needed to give the horse its head when going down hill. That the horse would be so focused on keeping its balance and watching its footing that he would forget all about crow-hopping, bucking, or giving hissy fits. The best training for horses is hill work. Guess that is not always true.