The Coachmans Shop

Horses Bjarke & Calle Type Danish Oldenburg (old style) age 12yrs.

These two horses are a nicely match pair.  Although Calle is slightly longer and Bjarke is a bit more upright.  But as a pleasure pair they go nicely together. 

They haven't really done any work for the past two years and so a bit overweight and lacking muscle tone.

week one: we spent mainly getting to know them and slowly getting some conditioning.  they are very forward going horses and would happily trot all day.  But after a 2 year break we need to be careful to bring them on slowly.  I first started by longreining them (double lungeing) to see how responsive they are. It is clear they are familiar with this and were very easy to work with.  Double lungeing defines and finds faults that are disguised in harness.  Both horses show some mouth problems and do their best to compensate.  ie they overbend and tilt their head to avoid possible shart teeth.  I inspected their teeth and found some very sharp molars.  Especially on Bjarke it is not fair at this stage to ask too much until the dentist amends their teeth issues.  I have seen some horrible cuts inside horses mouths who were pushed into the correct frames with sharp teeth.

Under saddle we find Calle fairly well educated with well established lateral movements.  Bjarke is a little more basic in his education and avoids the right contact by tilting his head.  We take the rest of the weeks training easy by conditioning work.

Week Two:  After a few short drives in the forest, i noticed turning right they really drop their shoulder and can't bend to the right.  where as left turns go smoothly.  Working straight along the road they go fairly well.  Bjarke near side Calle off side. Next day we take them into the dressage arena with Calle near side Bjarke off side.  They work nicely to the left and straight but when you turn to the right they both drop their shoulders dramatically and you have to hold them out on the circle.  Therefore they are looking left but on the right hand cirlce.  If you try to ask them to bend to the right they get upset and resist and fall sideways to the right.  So we know they have teeth issues the dentist is coming next week in the meantime our main goal is to keep them getting fitter without expecting to work against any possible pain.  Next week: as this is a very common problem in both single and pairs we will take you step by step in how to solve this issue.

Pic on the right Bjarke under saddle showing how he avoids the right rein by tilting his head away from the contact. in Harness he just fights the pressure.

Week 3 & 4 The Teeth were done by Lalla from www.hestetandpleje.dk she has not only a knowledge of performance horses through her own experience but combines this will the latest equine dental technology.  As you can see from the picture, Bjarke had quite a hook on his incisor.  Up on his molars were some very sharp points, resulting in some lacerations on the insides of his cheeks.  The hooks caused the jaw or TMJ joint to be locked and he was unable to slide the jaw beyond a point.  That is why he would not lower and lengthen his head, the best he could do was to come behind the bit.  He also tilted his head to one side slightly this is because he then thought he was straight this was his point of balance (head tilted) due to the painful TMJ joint.  If you forced him to straighten his head and then asked him to flex he would think he was falling over so this is why he then dropped the shoulder so badly on the right turn.

Calle had a large hook at the back of the molars hidden from the eye.  This also locked his jaw, he also had extremely large bridle teeth that would catch and hit on the bit when it was placed in his mouth.  The marks were evident on the bit itself.  This is why he would either put his head up high or go behind the bit rarely was his head steady during work.

The hook prevented him from accepting the right rein and this is why he couldn’t keep on the right circle with dropping his inside shoulder.

Now that the teeth are done we can confidently start to expect a change.  The memory of the pain and physical barriers can last up to 6 weeks.  We can help change the memory of patterns by altering a few normal things i.e. adjust straps slightly differently or put on a different bit.

Calle is very responsive to the leg so when riding him it is easy to hold him out with the legs.  I chose to double lunge them (see youtube video) for the first 3 days, in the driving bridle and harness after a short time they both started to balance up and take even contact without falling in.  They quickly developed a nice rhythm and balanced and the change was very noticeable.  On the fourth day we rode them and both were able to stretch down in the walk and have a nice swinging stride.  Day 5 after the teeth being done I drove them on the dressage arena, Calle didn’t go high above the bit at all, they both fell into the right still to start but after 15 minutes of work I was able to get some bend to the right.  Remember we have to change their old habits and create new ones.  We had to retrain Bjarke’s believe that when straightened he was not going to fall over when asked to bend right.  I was happy with their progress as at least I could see and feel some improvement.

Both horses are starting to accept the right rein and even bend in the direction this is a great start,  however if I change direction and then go back again to the right it takes them still a ¼ of a circle to re balance themselves.

Here we need to remember the dentist said it can take up to six weeks to reprogramme them so at day 5 they were well ahead of schedule.  I believe the double lunging really speeds things up.  You only need 15mins 3 days in a row (see youtube video)

Pic 1: shows them both taking the right rein and nicely into the traces on the turn.  Last week they were falling in to the right with heads turned out.

Pic2: The use of the whip on the shoulder can get them moving into the turn.