[payday]

bumpity bump bump

[Rhythm 'n Blues]

no riding pics payday?? Those are the ones I'm holding out to see before critiquing for dressage

Otherwise, he looks like a nice guy

[horse_mom]

little dressage horse????he looks HUGE!!!!!

[payday]

hes only 15.1 oh and heres a dressage pic of him...

[payday]

sorry its not that good of a pic

[payday]

its not the best picture of me (heeheehee!) i was caught at a bad time but thats my little guy!

[JBandRio]

Are those draw reins on him? If so, for what purpose are you using them? He doesn't appear to have enough room in whatever you're using to have his neck lower like that AND have his face on or a bit in front of the vertical.

There's no "ooomph" to his trot - his RH is still on the ground, his LH IS on the ground a couple of hoofprints behind the LF that's still on the ground, and his RF is either just touching down or is about to.

I would get rid of everything connected to his mouth but regular reins, and just ride him forward forward forward - he's got no forward

[sarahhowen]

Hi I agree with JB about the draw reins, I used to be a huge fan of these as I thought they created a nice "head set" until I was re-educated, the correct outline comes from working a horse from the behind and you want him to be really getting his hocks underneath him, once you have got the impulsion from behind you can see about controlling it with your outside rein and asking for the bend with the inside rein. Interesting fact about draw reins also, when I tried to use them on my mare (who is opinionated at the best of times) we ended up having a huge "discussion" which only succeeded in getting both of us hot and bothered. Actually asking her correctly from in the saddle she picked it up in about 3 minutes flat and quite enjoyed showing off her new shape to all the people watching her at the riding school who were gobsmacked and thought I had brought a different horse! Remove all the gadgets and like JB says work on the impulsion first, the rest will come.

[ShowJumper23]

I agree, ditch the gadget, and just work on getting him moving forward and using that back end. In the u/s picture, he looks like he is broken at the C3, and he is definitly behind the verticle. I used to have a similar problem, but instead of using draw reins, I was fighting him with my hands. I was told the same thing, to back up, work on forward, and don't worry about his head, and sure enough, it worked

[Rhythm 'n Blues]

Yup, I agree with everything said above. You want his head to be more like "Wonder" the little guy from my thread that I saw you posted on. You can also see that you're guys hind foot isn't being placed down in the foot print of his front foot (tracking up). That is a direct result of him being behind the verticle (BTV). As soon as the horse ends up BTV they loose all impulsion from their hind end. The 1st thing that goes is usually tracking up.

I would also suggest moving your saddle back a few inches. I would be willing to bet that doing that will give him a much bigger stride, as it will free up his shoulder a heck of alot more. - Hey, it's worth a try right?

Other than that, I mean I can see that he has potential to do well in Dressage, you just gotta get him moving free-er!