Equestrians dreams said:

If you ride her in Spurs she may feel uncomfortable with someone riding her with them or she is testing you.

FirstLightFarms said:

Completely agree with emerald. Sometimes horses get more persnickety with advanced riders than they do with beginner riders, because with beginner riders they kinda just tune out the unbalance and too many signals given all at once, so when they're with an advanced riders and have to pay more attention, when the advanced rider does something slightly 'wrong' they go "excuse me, but that is unacceptable" and then overreact like that. It might be worth noting if she's always jumping to the same side- if she always goes right, your right leg may need more strengthening, and vice versa if it's your left. Or you might be slipping one of your reins a bit (I have an awful habit of letting my right rein get longer than my left), and once she jumps to the side you subconsciously hang onto the rein a little harder and boom, the problem is fixed.

Hope you figure it out!

Thank you! You explained it very well :) She always jumps to the left, but I am not sure if it's because I'm not using enough left leg, or if it's because she is stiff on the right. I do have to use a bit of right leg to keep her rear end up under her (she likes to lean down on her left shoulder and swing her butt out to the right). She does occasionally try her blow up to the right, but she's stiffer and usually can't do too much without losing her balance. If I catch her tensing up (I only feel it sometimes), I can bend her to the right and she'll keep going at canter, but it seems to only postpone her blowup.

I've also never her seen her do her spinning trick with the beginners to the right. It's always to the left :)

I'll definitely pay attention next time I ride her to see if I am doing anything to trigger it, and I'll have someone watch me.

Ivy Wood Stables said:

HMH Reality Check said:

I have a horse like kinda like this. I don't mind it as I like em a little spicy. He toe drags and plods along without a care in the world for the beginners but I get on and he's speedy and bucks. Just ride through it, she may be continually testing you, or maybe your have a small little habit that irks her. Have someone watch you on the ground. Also, after she pulls something, go back and think about exactly what you did just before that, maybe to it again, does she respond in the same way?

I don't really mind it, but it's not a good habit for a lesson horse to get into. Or any horse. I certainly enjoy a lively horse, but I am just very curious as to why she only does it with me.

You might have a hot seat.

Cappuccino said:

You may have saddle fit issues. The horse may have underlying vet issues - kissing spine etc.

I'd say get a full vet check and if thats clear. Check saddle fit.

EmeraldHillsFarm said:

I've never personally used the term hot seat, but I think it refers to this:

The way some people sit in the saddle has a way of lighting up the horse. I've always called it a driving seat, and its typically a deep seat (and often one that's balanced more backwards) that drives the horse forward, getting them moving faster and faster. Its a death sentence on my OTTB, who takes a too deep seat or anything close to a chair seat as a signal to take off. A driving seat can be useful on lazy horses or when you need to ride defensively (i.e. to a scary fence) so long as you can remain balanced and following, and get out of the driving seat when needed.

Ive ridden her twice since I last updated it.
The first of these rides was on Thanksgiving, and I had a pretty good ride. She only spun around once, only because she took me off guard. I was cantering her on a large circle, and I asked for canter at the wrong spot, right near another mare. Her being a grumpy mare, she jumped around and went after the other horse. I don't think it was due to her usual problem, just me leaving an opening for her to misbehave. I rode her bareback for about half of the ride, and I did end up falling off, but not due to her acting up. I was cooling her out, I wasn't holding the reins, and un-velcroed my glove. She took on step to the side and I slid right off.

My most recent ride on her was a little worse. She was being very good for most of the lesson, until I was going across the diagonal to track left and asked for canter. I could feel her tense up as soon as I started across the diagonal, and I just barely moved my leg and she spun around and started some little crow hopping.
I went across the diagonals several times without asking for canter, and each time she was fine when we were headed to track right, but tensed and sped up headed to track left. She would relax as soon as we got to the beaten track, and was fine if I asked for canter then. I then asked for canter earlier, right before we got to X, and she was fine for about 3 strides and then blew up again. I had her owner watch me, and she said it looked liked she was expecting me to do something, and either was trying to anticipate it, or was expecting me to take the reins too hard.

Ivy Wood Stables said:

My most recent ride on her was a little worse. She was being very good for most of the lesson, until I was going across the diagonal to track left and asked for canter. I could feel her tense up as soon as I started across the diagonal, and I just barely moved my leg and she spun around and started some little crow hopping.
I went across the diagonals several times without asking for canter, and each time she was fine when we were headed to track right, but tensed and sped up headed to track left. She would relax as soon as we got to the beaten track, and was fine if I asked for canter then. I then asked for canter earlier, right before we got to X, and she was fine for about 3 strides and then blew up again. I had her owner watch me, and she said it looked liked she was expecting me to do something, and either was trying to anticipate it, or was expecting me to take the reins too hard.