One of the reasons horses are "lop sided"/tense on one side "right dominant" as he called it s simply becuase we dont work our horses in a balanced way. Most people lead from the same side all the time, get on the saddle from the same side, get off the same side etc etc. When they are circled/lunged/long reined they inevitably go better one way than the other - we often make this worse by continuing to work the "easy" way whereas we should actually spend more time on the difficult way in order even up the muscles . Its a bit like going to the gym and only doing the weights with one arm and leg! :-) I strongly recommend getting a qualified equine physio in who can see whats going on and put together a series of exercises for you and your horse. Keep up posted :-) Also, check your saddle fit, your own weight, and your own riding style to see if there are any clues there too.

well
thanks wicci but i am living in iran and i am not embarrassed to say i should be all my own saddle fitter and physio and trainer and .....
so i should learn body working or ... my self :)
thanks

I appreicate not everyone has access to other specialists so yes, I guess it means getting as much knowledge as possible from different areas so that you can do as much of the work as possible yourself. I suggest going step by step to see exactly what the back problem is, see if you can isolate the cause. It may be stiffness (needs longer warm up before working), poor saddle (get a good saddle fitters guide and check), poor muscle development ( various books and articles about developing muscle) etc. I'm sure everyone on here will do their best to help and have specialist knowledge in different areas :-)

Ditto to everything Vicci says. And, please teach your horse to eventually "go into" a collected state automatically when he/she carries a rider. This is so underrated and overlooked and yet, is to vital to any horses health.

thanks vicci and pmpleau
pmpleau can u describe more ?

In a really tiny and not very detailed nutshell, here it is; Horses in general carry approximately 65% (and sometimes even more)of their weight on the forehand, which is to say, to the front of their body with their front legs bearing the brunt of the weight. Their center of gravity is therefore more to the front. When a rider sits on the horse, the center of gravity obviously changes and moves more to the rear. The horse must compensate for this and to do so requires them to tighten/firm up the longissimus muscle (and many others), and to try to keep them that way for as long as the rider is on their back. Myriad of studies have incontrovertibly shown that within 3 to 7 minutes muscle fatigue and short term damage starts to occur. Anything longer than 15 minutes at a time and the damage gets exponentially worse. UNLESS, a horse is taught to collect when being ridden. This takes time, patience and the knowledge to teach the horse. In plain english, collection is merely having the horse shift his balance, by shifting his center of gravity to the rear, particularly when supporting a rider. He/she (the horse) does this by simply dropping their bum down/lower, bringing their rear legs under, towards the front of their body (collecting), thereby having their rear legs carry the majority of their and the rider's weight.
Studies have shown that any horse is capable of carrying up to ten times more weight with their hind legs. Be patient when teaching this, it takes time for the muscles and ligaments and tendons to adjust, and it varies with each horse depending on their physique, muscle tone and so on.
To help you understand a little bit about how the horse might feel....seat someone on your shoulders, then walk around with them perfectly centered. Now, have them shift their weight forward by leaning way over your head towards the front. You are now going to have to either fall down on your face, or start walking/running like hell to try and stay properly balanced and eventually standing. You will see a lot of riders lean forward while seated on a stationary horse, then the horse quickly takes a few forward steps, without any "go forward" cues. This is exactly why they do, to compensate this, the same way you had to when you had the person on your shoulders.
OK, gotta run. This was very short and hardly as descriptive and as "all encompassing" as it really should and could be, but it gets the point across anyway?
Cheers,
Paul

Great explanation Paul and I think it's particularly valid and seriously overlooked when people are adopting ex-racehorses! Racehorses run on the forehand and don't pull up short to stop, they just slow their canter down until they naturally come to a stop and yet we expect to be able to get on them and do all the things we want to do straight away!

Thanks so much Paul for your excellent explanation. Also thanks Vicci - valuable for Cash.

From this forum someone mentioned "sustainable dressage", please check the following link to see illustrated what Paul described so well above!
http://www.sustainabledressage.net/collection/true_collection.php
Take the time to read the whole item and better the whole site, great info with wonderful common sense...
Miriam

Wow Miriam, a great resource, it will take me ages to go through it all and process it! Thanks for that.

thanks every one so the information is excellent but what it remains is exercises that i need to know :)

ohhhhhhhh the sustainable dressage is magnificent