Babies transactions from trot to canter

sophie550

sophie550

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My 3 year olds been broken since around April, when she was first broken all we did was walk and trot a couple of times a week, at the beginning of June we hacked out to chase another horse to get her into canter. She does now canter when asked with the use of a schooling whip.

The only problem is, she will trot really fast before then going straight into a really fast canter, if i ask for her to slow down she instantly drops straight back into trot, the only time i can do this is out on a hack as i have cantered her in the out door school and we simply don't have enough room, like wise in the indoor school. I was going to have lessons on her in a few months time, as i don't want her in really heavy work with her being so young. All Im asking is a nice slow/collected canter, but she just doest seem to get the jist of it.

If anyone has any tips or nice comments please let me know! :)
 
I'm no where near anything of an expert when it comes to youngsters but her canter is probably fast because she's unbalanced, as getting a collected canter that's completely balanced from a youngster takes time. I'll leave the tips to the more experienced :o
 
Oh i never though of that she'd be unbalanced, thankyou for the replies! And it tends to be both ridden and on the lunge, but I dont ask much for canter on the lunge :)
 
Cantering slow is very hard work, especially for a young horse as they do not have the muscle strength, coordination or balance to do it. I would never expect a young horse to be able to canter in a steady and collected manner. If you do not want her to do too much work as she is young, then just leave it and let her get on with it, do not canter in small spaces with tight corners/small circles. Once she is old enough and ready to do some proper work there are several exercises that can be done to help the quality of the canter
 
Someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but what I remember from schooling my lad when he was really green was that he would rush in trot getting faster and faster before being able to canter and then it would feel (for him) fast.

I would say until she's a bit stronger and more balanced in herself you just have to go with the trot to canter rushy transition and as for the canter, cantering on hacks is great because she can just go with what feels natural without worrying about corners etc. If she's going mad fast keep your leg on and gently ask her to slow down but she's not going to be fit and balanced enough to do a really slow canter yet especially since she'll just have figured out what to do with her legs ;)

As she gets more balanced etc you can try 20m circles in the school, it helped my lad control his rushing.
 
She is not yet strong enough to manage a collected, balanced canter, it takes time to build up the muscles and strength required to go into canter and maintain it without being expected to stay balanced as well.
Continue cantering on hacks to build her up and start to ask for very short canters in the school, just 2 or 3 strides before bringing her back to trot, get her balanced again before doing a little more.

Some horses are naturally well balanced and find canter easy, others take much longer and will not canter well for some time, think years not weeks.
 
Too young, and unbalanced to 'collect' her canter. I would now leave her to chill in the summer sun, and winter well and re-start in the spring. I think, you will then find her natural balance would be much improved.

NB..The picture in your sig of horse with lead rope over head gives me the heebies... Seen too much of that and accidents from that.
 
Thankyou Bexx, all we tend to just do hacking at the moment so she can get out and see everything, but when ive asked for canter in the school its the speed she does struggle with, on hacks it doesnt bother me so much. Sandi thats exactly what my girl does, im in no rush to school her or force her into an outline, if times what she needs then time is what she will have :)
 
Do you mean 'transition'?!!!

My 6 yr old is only just balanced enough in his canter to work on the quality of the transition, and slowing the pace, so imagine you are just asking too much of a 3yr old.

Would echo others that have said just do a few strides of canter on hacks and leave the school work until next year when she is more mature.
 
Fools Motto said:
Too young, and unbalanced to 'collect' her canter. I would now leave her to chill in the summer sun, and winter well and re-start in the spring. I think, you will then find her natural balance would be much improved.

NB..The picture in your sig of horse with lead rope over head gives me the heebies... Seen too much of that and accidents from that.
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As above, incl the NB scary.
 
Is she actually 3 as in born in 2010? To be fair she's trying to tell you this is a bit much right now. Chasing after another horse on hacks also sounds weird. Look it some babies are born with a natural canter. As a matter of fact I wouldn't buy one without it anymore. Experience has taught me that. My 7 yo is only now in the position of having a nice canter and my word it's been a long time coming. I'm on about consistency and adjustability. If you base what your mare should be doing by watching how others are cantering you may get dissappointed. Seriously there is a huge genetic componet at work here too. People should keep that in mind when breeding. Big huge trots does not impress me anymore. And if you think about it top dressage people at jumping blood now and again to improve the hind leg. Jumper breeders never reach for big trot dressage horses to improve anything. So anyone considering breeding keep that in mind especially from your mare. Don't fall for color and pizazz. Look at the canter on stallions and mares as youngsters.

Ok done rambling.

Terri
 
Im not trying to say that she doesnt have a "natural canter" by chasing another, the only time we chased another horse was to show her that she can canter with a rider on board, without her chasing the other she only knew to trot, as that is what we had been doing, its nothing to do with her breeding as she canters perfectly fine.
 
sophie550 said:
Im not trying to say that she doesnt have a "natural canter" by chasing another, the only time we chased another horse was to show her that she can canter with a rider on board, without her chasing the other she only knew to trot, as that is what we had been doing, its nothing to do with her breeding as she canters perfectly fine.
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I think what EI was saying is that some have a better natural talent for it and take to lovely canter like a duck out of water and some like mine had to have time to fitten up and figure out what his feet were supposed to do before we could think about "proper" canter :)

Just take her training nice and slow, canter will come when she's fitter, more muscled and more balanced.

To give you an idea, I was schooling my lad in walk and trot for about 3-4 months before we even attempted canter (he was 5 at the time so was physically more mature, had more muscle and balance through nothing but maturity than your's is likely to have at 3) when we did we got a few months of rushy trot to canter transitions and some really dodgey canters for quite a few months before he was balanced and fit enough to hold himself together for what I would call a decent canter so all in all it was about 7-8 months of gentle work and fittening before we started to get something halfway good out of him and he had 2 years on your horse :o
 
Ok you took all of that completely wrong. She is not able to do whst you want at this stage. And what I'm on about with breeding is not well bred against not well bred. I see lots of well bred jumper foals that trot everwhere. I'll take the one that canters all day long. But thing is I wanted to learn and so I tried to do just that.

So basically just keep doing what you're at and she'll be fine.

Terri
 
It just takes time some take loads longer than others .
I often leave it till they are four if they find it hard.
I concerntrate on teaching the voice command canter on the lunge then use it ridden at first, although I know loads of people think this wrong but it's the way that works for me.
 
When I backed my current 5yr old at 3 I really struggled to keep him in canter on the lunge so figured it would be really hard for him with me on his back. Did do a few short canters shortly after backing him and then very occasionally when I was feeling confident. Everyone on the yard said if I didn't crack on with the canter 'now' I would have issues later on as he wouldn't want to do it. Ignored them, waited until he was easy on the lunge and now he is cantering beautifully for his level of training. At first my aim was just to keep him going and forget outline etc and teach him he mustn't break till I say so. The least little touch of the rein caused him to break so needed pushing on through these moments and we are now making great progress. I can actually get him rounder and more forward in canter than trot and as I discovered today when doing some canter work off the track in the indoor my steering is better than in trot. Just give him time. I will add that I have been very lucky as my baby has always been balanced and 'easy' in his canter and has never rushed. Perhaps though because I never rushed him? Hope this helps?
 
At her age I wouldn't be cantering at all! At three years old even without seeing her, im sure she will undoubtedly be heavily on the forehand especially with a rider on. Work on rebalancing her in walk and trot with a good instructor to help you. Be prepared to be patient this may take a looooooong time.
 
I wouldnt be cantering either at that age. My 8 year old, although broken at 6 and a half is only just started cantering as his lack of balance resulted in some incredible broncing sessions last year causing me several injuries and a huge loss of confidence. There is no rush, let her develop both physically and mentally and learn together. It will come a lot easier when shes ready and be much more pleasurable for both of you
 
My 6yo doesn't canter very well, it really can take a long time! She hasn't done much though and was backed at 4. I am just working up a fair bit of trot to build her up (she can get rushy in trot too). You ideally need a steady rhythmic trot to go into canter better, rather than a rushed one, and agree voice aids can be really handy to make the canter aid clearer, so they don't just think 'trot faster'. Straight lines are good, but don't feel like she 'should' be cantering at all, let alone cantering well.
 
Out of curiosity, would anyone ever use a small jump to help with the transition to canter with a baby? Or would you alway be cantering before you started jumping anyway? Just asking because when my old girl was learning to canter (12yrs old, ex-driving pony who had never been allowed to canter being either stabled or road driven and not much else) she found it a lot easier using a small cross pole. Would that be completely unsuitable for a youngster?
 
dollyanna said:
Out of curiosity, would anyone ever use a small jump to help with the transition to canter with a baby? Or would you alway be cantering before you started jumping anyway? Just asking because when my old girl was learning to canter (12yrs old, ex-driving pony who had never been allowed to canter being either stabled or road driven and not much else) she found it a lot easier using a small cross pole. Would that be completely unsuitable for a youngster?
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Personally no I wouldn't like to do that with a baby - for me I'd focus on the canter first, poles on the ground and then jumps.
 
My cob is 5 and TBH the canter work is still a working progress! she's getting better all the time though now she getting stronger and fitter. Cantering outside the school and just doing lots of hacking (on the straight) has taught her where her legs should be. She can manage canter on the lunge now and is getting better all the time.
Its a case of your horse not being strong enough yet as still young. Give it another year or so :)
My horse was backed at 3.5 and then turned away for a good 10 months, she came back as a 5yr old with a huge difference. Much stronger, bigger and mentally more mature.
These things take time and a little break does them the world of good :)
 
sandi_84 said:
Personally no I wouldn't like to do that with a baby - for me I'd focus on the canter first, poles on the ground and then jumps.
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That's what I would have thought, I was just curious if anyone had ever spent a year doing trotwork for example, and then used the jumps to work on the canter, given that you could teach them to jump just from a trot. Whether if the trot was good, they would naturally progress to a few strides of canter after the jump, rather than using speed to get them into canter.
 
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