Balancing canter on the lunge

[AAR]

Have a horse having trouble cantering on the lunge. He either goes full pelt or breaks into trot after half a circle if he does keep it steady.

After cantering like a looney if I ask him back to trot he comes back to lovely steady trot in a nice rhythm. He doesn't continue rushing around.

Currently being lunged in a bungee. Won't take a pessoa.

He can't be ridden in the school at the moment. (Problem horse, just plants and refuses to move if ridden in the school after 10mins.) So don't know what he is like cantering ridden in the school. He's fine out on hacks but that's in straight lines so no problems there.

He is needing more muscle, could he just be lacking muscle to support himself and I just need to wait and give him time? Any exercises that will help him? He's a 9yr old but was out of work for quite a while before we got him. He is especially weak behind.

 

[smja]

Sounds like he doesn't have the strength to carry himself, so either rushing onto the forehand or collapsing down into the more comfortable (for him) trot. I'd leave lunge cantering alone for a while and focus on building up his back end - lots of transitions (between paces and within the pace too), lunging over poles/raised poles. I'd also try long reining or in hand work so you can introduce some light lateral work (baby leg yield etc) to encourage engagement of the back legs.

Once he's built up some more muscle, reintroduce cantering in tiny portions - literally cantering a few strides each time then back to trot. The trot-canter-trot transitions will help his bum if he's doing them right. With practice, make the cantering section longer, but try to bring him back before he either rushes or breaks for himself.

 

[Tnavas]

Cantering on the lunge is not really a good idea until the horse is well balanced and muscled in trot.

He's rushing because he lacks the balance.

You will get better results working in trot and improving the quality of the trot work. Are you using side reins and lunging off a lunge cavesson as both will help improve quality of trot work.

 

[AAR]

Thank you, will work on his trot for a few months. He's improved so much in the last 3 months anyway.

Yes I use a lunge cavesson but not side reins, a bungee instead as he is softer in a bungee.

 

[Moomin1]

Cantering on the lunge is not really a good idea until the horse is well balanced and muscled in trot.

He's rushing because he lacks the balance.

You will get better results working in trot and improving the quality of the trot work. Are you using side reins and lunging off a lunge cavesson as both will help improve quality of trot work.

I agree with this. Though the only thing I would say is that side reins can have the tendency to make them fall on the forehand a little and aren't as effective as a Pessoa IME.

OP I think I would be tempted to just concentrate lots on the trot on the lunge as Tnavas says, with lots of transitions and getting your horse to listen to your voice aids so that you can do lots of transitions within the pace. When you start doing any canter on the lunge I would be tempted to remove the bungee or whatever you are using, and literally just start with getting the transition to canter sharp off your voice. Don't worry about how many steps he does before breaking into trot to start with. Then once the transition is balanced and off your voice (will take time), start gradually encouraging him to keep going a bit further. But if it becomes unbalanced and hurried, just bring him back to trot, and using your voice get him back to a balanced pace as soon as you can. once the transitions are there in canter, and nice and balanced, you could reintroduce the bungee/whatever to start encouraging him to use the back end a little more.