Long reining

[libertylou]

I'm rebacking my Welsh D mare. Had a bit of a nightmare with her as she is very,very spooky. Taken her back to basics. When I long rein on right rein she is fine, but when I do it on the left rein she holds her head to the outside. I have tried to use my lunging whip pointed at her belly to try and use it as an inside leg and give gentle squeezes on the inside rein. It's in walk and trot. Back/teeth all recently done. I do in-hand with her too and she does bend Any tips greatly received

[antares]

You need to try and work out what is going on with the feet - so he is on the left rein but bent slightly to the right - this could be for a number of reasons, firstly are your reins of equal tension ie make sure you are not asking for right bend. Counter bend can be caused by the horse falling onto the inside shoulder - if that is the case then try asking the horse to straighten by moving the shoulders over to the outside.

It could also be that the hind quarters are falling in or potentially out - if they are falling in then you can ask for a half a step to the outside by asking them to yield a little. If they are falling out then you are doing the right thing by imitating the inside leg BUT you then need to be sure that the outside rein has a good contact

[kafee]

You could try longreining her in a figure of 8 in the school/round pen, working on asking for the bend. She will probably resist to start with and then relax once she realises what she's being asked to do.