Horse Hanging

Question
Hey. I have a horse with a trainer. The horse has potential. She is a 3year old filly. the problem is corners. Unfortunately she does not want to turn, the rider has to almost stop her to get her in the right direction and then she powers home. She has been vetted and had physio and everything seems ok with her. she did it as a 2 yr old and we spelled her and she is just coming back and trialled the other day and did the same thing. The trainer was going to use a bit which makes her not want to turn her head in the other direction and he also so some horses just grow out of it.. is this true or am i wasting me money.

Answer
Hey yourself,
           This is a common enough problem and your trainer is right, they often grow out of it. That is assuming it is a habit rather than a physical problem. If a horse has a tweaked nerve it can be a bit fractious about turning because it hurts.

First you have to work out why she is doing this.

You can check this by putting her on a long lead and gradually increasing the speed until she starts playing up. Obviously you need to walk, trot, canter, run in both directions to compare the differences.

If she plays up then you need to look for a back or neck problem. Also check for partial blindness.

If she shows no discomfort then it is probably a bad habit which can be unlearned. You can train her against the outside running rail where she must keep turning and even use the paddock where she will have to turn much sharper. You can also run another horse outside her and slightly in front to keep her turning. Good thing about horses is that they can usually unlearn the bad things they have learned.

Let me know how you get on.
Cheers,
Don
New Zealand