When your horse curls behind the vertical or won’t take the contact, it is impossible to get your horse to correctly engage their hind end or use their topline. You will find that regulating tempo, getting your horse to move forward, and riding transitions can be particularly difficult when you are not able to establish a steady contact.
In this video I’ll show you what to do when your horse curls and a few exercises to help eradicate it!
Finding the rhythm and maintaining a steady tempo is very difficult with a horse that curls. Since you are not able to establish a steady contact, you have no way of regulating or maintaining the tempo.
With a horse that curls, I find it’s best to keep the contact really steady and still and ride mainly from your seat and leg. You want to make sure that when the horse drops behind the contact they don’t get away from the pressure. Keep the steady contact regardless of where he goes – even if you need to take your hands a little wide.
Here are a few exercises to help with horses that tend to curl:
Leg Yields
The reason a leg yield helps is that you’re connecting the inside leg to the outside rein, and thus getting them to engage their back properly. If they curl in this process, you can lift the hands up to get them almost above the bit and then reestablish the steady contact! If you lift your hands up, it’s important that you place the hands back down and not keep them in the elevated position.
Transitions
The reason transitions are great for horses that curl is because they get them to push from the hind end, through the back and into the hand.
Any transitions can work beneficially on this!
Be sure to watch this video for a demo on these exercises.
Thanks for watching and happy riding.
