a little bit of canter help?

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SarahRicoh

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Okay guys so my ponies schooling in walk/trot is slowly improving. Im learning how to ride him better & hes responding..
Im also doing quite a bit of lunging with him as its helpful him responding to voice and to get him balanced without a rider buttt....

His canter is awful! He can barely canter half a lap of the school because he'll either go off on wrong leg/disunited or he speeds off totally unbalanced & on the forehand and motorbikes around!

Atm iv been doing walk & trot but hes muscled up a bit now & can canter on lunge quite happily so stsrting to incorporate it into schooling.

Just a canter strike off in corner and down long side. Its not going well.. If hes really concentrating can sometimes get a nice transition.but then.he powers off like a tank & runs back.into a trot.

Any ideas on how to.improve his trot-canter transitions,canter in general,and make him sit back on.his bum.more!

Ps. Hes very tense/nervy/sensitive so legs are used very gently and i try to keep light hands although he leans a lot :(

Sorry for essay!!*
 
Does he hack? Slight up hill incline might help him.

A pole in the corner, can help get the correct strike off and just ask for half 20m circle, then back to trot. Will easier to balance on large circle.

Lots and lots of transitions.
 
Yup we hack.. Do you mean canter uphill? Or hacking uphill may help his canter?

Hes not that great with poles-they tend to confuse him but its worth a try!

Im trying to get half a circle but he wont bend very well around my leg as he moves away from it and doesnt seem to be collected enough to canter around a circle
 
Get him confident cantering out on hacks. Give him a nice straight run of canter, so he can learn how to balance with a rider on, before trying to get him to turn corners. Take a steady lead horse if you are worried about him taking off, also, if you feel confident enough, to start with, do the opposite of what you are taught and get up of his back a bit once you have pushed him into canter.
 
I read somewhere that this often happens with a young/ green horse and that practice basically makes perfect? Sorry I know that was totally unhelpful :o
 
How young is he? Are you getting any lessons? With all due respect, what happens when he is schooled by someone more experienced?

As a general rule if a horse is 'hot' to the leg you should use it rather than take it off - lazy horses=teach them to respond to very little leg, hot horses=teach them to accept the leg. When you school can he leg yield in trot from a 10m circle to a 20m circle (gradually)? If yes then ask for the canter strike off as you arrive on your 20m circle. On the circle he should accept the inside leg as an aid for bending and slight shoulder for, if he escapes out of the outside shoulder then use your outside hand to contain and rebalance him or if necessary carry a small whip on the outside and give him a little tap on the shoulder.
 
Try doing the transition with your eyes closed. Sometimes the rider interferes too much when they anticipate it. Obviously not a long term solution but its interesting to see if its better when you're not dictating the stride.. Good luck
 
Have you had a physio look at his back? I had similar problems to you and a physio treatment using H Wave therapy made a big difference. I found that once she was less tense she was more amiable to concentrate on what I was asking.

An exercise you could try is to ask for the transition over a pole. This worked well for me. To the extent that my mare started to offer the correct transition two strides before the pole.

Good luck.
 
Booboos said:
When you school can he leg yield in trot from a 10m circle to a 20m circle (gradually)? If yes then ask for the canter strike off as you arrive on your 20m circle.
Click to expand...

^ This is a brilliant exercise with my boy we've been using to stop him running into the canter on his bad rein.

However, when he was really sticky into the transition in the early days when he didn't seem to have anything but trot as a pace (had been broken to drive and I suspect badly), I had another exercise.

I'd ride a 20m circle in trot one end of the school, then go sitting on the short side and slow the pace a little, then turn across the diagonal and go rising and push the trot out a bit, then sitting before the marker on the track, slow the trot up a little again, lift the inside hand a little and ask for the canter. I use the word slow, because this was no where near collection at all, just a slight steady. It works because you are asking them for a little more engagement, the corner helps makes the inside hind a little more active, and the wall of the school helps stop the shoulder falling out.

Sorry if you know all this already, but I was a novice rider and an unbroken horse and my instructor has the patience of a saint and a lot of tricks in her book. :)
 
A) Dont teach canter in the school do it outside, longreining / lunging in the field so he can get a bigger circle and therefore more balance yes you may have to run along side for a bit.

B) Go out with other horses and canter. I taught her to canter buy cantering torwards the gate home (but I have very good brakes).

C)It took me from August to where we were cantering on the lunge to last month when we started cantering out with others and only two weeks ago she cantered her first 20m circle even then she ran into it, and dropped a shoulder (my fault).

She found it a very unnatural gait with a rider on board. Also goes against everything she was probably taught as a driving horse with a fear for the bit (we think shes been pushed and pulled about).

Practice and Patience will get you there and dont try and do it every time you ride, alternate hacking, schooling, long reining. Sometimes I dont even trot in long reins and concentrate on half passes, standing and back up, sometimes we just "play" with poles and cones.
 
Hes not young... Hes 11 but hes never been.schooled properly. Hes done bsja-god knows how- and was just whipped round courses.
He canters fine on a hack although i havent cantered him.much as hes prone to bolting.. On a hack he canter forward freely so he hasnt got a problem. In a school he needs to sit back on his bum really to get collected enough to canter if you get me... I think thats what hes struggling with as hes very on forehand. Hes petrified of whips so cant use one! And noone else has ridden.him because hes nervy and he trusts me (just about) but if anyone else got on it would upset him..

Back person is coming out next sat :)

Any suggestions on how to get him off forehand and using his bum.more?
 
my horse was very on forehand and dragged himself along with his shoulders and also was very unbalanced in canter when i first got him. It takes a while but lots of hill work (in walk) sit back on his back rather than leaning forward, this will help to strengthen his quarters and build muscle you need for canter work and perhaps try some trotting poles in the school to encourage him to lift himself up from underneath and lots of short transitions will help him think about oushing from behind. Most importantly.... let go! do not encourage him to lean on your hands by holding on, you need to show him there is nothing to lean on, flick him up with your reins, and give and retake every so often with your inside hand when schooling. He will soon learn to carry himself. keep practicing, nothing with horses happens over night, hey it would be boring if it did! persistance + repetition! hope this helps
 
Was he vetted before you got him? To be honest given his age I would want to exclude a physical problem before anything else. Physio can be really useful but in my opinion you need a vet first to diagnose.
 
To be honest I would get the vet out. Even a very unfit 11 year old should be able to canter round the school. You could end up spending time and money, and getting attached to a horse which has an underlying problem, so it might be best to find out about it now.
 
Maybe i didnt say it correctly sorry... If i asked him to canter & he was on the right leg he could canter a full lap of school if i pushed him on round corners.
But...
He motorbikes so hes very unbalanced around the corners and i feel like hes going to fall over & its all done at a very fast speed and when i ask for trot he drops back into a fast trot..
I wanted some advices/exercises to get him to be more balanced & canter a circle slowly and a bit more collectedly.. Sorry im.not explaining it very well.

Il try get a video to show what hes like!
 
I got my mare in November, she was quite similar, had awful transitions and would run on in the canter. Its taken until now (literally in the last 3 weeks) to solve, she's going brilliantly now. I did lots of pole work (trot and canter poles, gridwork etc) and transitions and circles basically just lots of exercises to stop her rushing. Another way that works is to use your seat to slow down not your hands, if they try to go back into the trot squeeze on to keep the canter, and use your seat to collect it. Might not help with yours but its helped loads with my mare :)
 
Think bout sucking upwards with your seat so that the impulsion goes upwards, rather than forwards which is how hes running out at the front and not using his backend. Do not push with both seatbones, especially going around corners, and watch your own balance and head for tipping inwards which will unbalance him further.

When you're lunging him you want a nice steady canter, that you could set a metranome to. Make sure its rhymical, no rushing at corners etc - use your voice i 'nicely' when i want more collection.

Suggest you get heather moffetts book - ace for rider and horse training :)
 
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