Re: change diagonals frequently

[flemmerl@rcbhsc.wvu.edu (Flemmer, Linda)]

Beverly540@aol.com wrote:

> Hi Linda,
> you wrote:
> >>Caveats...  Change diagonals, frequently!
> I do change frequently, every few minutes or so.....but it seems that Flower
> prefers the right over her left. I have to struggle (mild struggle)  to stay
> with her left diagonal. She FEELS  even to me.....what do you think of this??

Your horse is expressing a preference for one side (she is "right handed" in
other words).  I've got horses that do the same thing at a trot or canter.  They
do a funny shuffle or "misstep" and you are suddenly on the favored diagonal or
lead.  (I swear they smirk when they do this.  "Ha!  I fooled that silly person
on my back.")

If you don't change diagonals with this horse, she will become overly developed
on one side with time and miles.  To see if this is already occurring, stand
above her (hay loft, tree branch, ladder) and look down at her back.  Do her
withers look symmetrical?  From the side, are shoulders developed the same way?
Is her neck more developed on one side or the other?

I try to change leads or diagonals around every mile.  Depending on the speed of
the trot, it can be anywhere from every 3 minutes to every 8 minutes.  It sounds
like you are on target with trying to alternate!  Sometimes I have a stretch
where we walk or canter and I'm feeling obsessive about alternating trotting
diagonals when we restart.  To remember what side we were on last, I throw the
bight of the reins to that side.  (DIMR takes it's toll!  I need visual
reminders!)

When I got a gelding who had an older, dramatic injury in his shoulder from
running through barbed wire (NOT at MY farm, guys), we worked on posting to the
side that showed muscle wasting more than we did to his good side. He developed
muscle very quickly!  (We combined this with massage, stretching, and bending
exercises.)  He is now quite even in his muscling.  He still prefers the
uninjured left side diagonal and canter lead if given a choice.  Since he was a
yearling when the injury happened, there is no way for me to ever know if that
was the side he preferred before the accident.  (We definitely don't ride
yearlings, and he was owned by other folks at that time who lived far away from
us.  No chance to observe him as a yearling.)

Keep on changing diagonals and leads, regardless of what Flower wants.  Remember
what I said yesterday about endurance being a partnership between the horse &
rider?  This is one of those times when the "executive partner" gets to over-ride
the horse's point of view.

Linda Flemmer