Canter exercises advice

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stanley1234

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Advice please on which exercises I can use to get my four year old cantering on the correct lead. He's fantastic on his left leg but unfortunately hasn't figured out how to canter correctly on his right!! Patience and perseverance I know are key. But with a youngster, what can I do to encourage correct canter?
 
get lots of right bend in the neck and exagerate your outside leg aid so you 'curling' him to the right around your inside leg,(also assuming your doing this on a 20m circle or corner to help him!)
 
i'd get his back and saddle checked to make sure there isn't a physical reason why he can't/won't canter on the right lead.
best exercise: walk a few smallish circles to the right first, then trot a few circles so he's really thinking right, then pop over a pole or small x just before the first corner of a school, so it's obvious to him that he's got 2 turns to the right coming up... only an amazingly daft horse will get it wrong then. if he does, relax, bring back to walk, repeat repeat repeat until he gets it right, tons of praise when he does.
if he can canter on right lead on the lunge, i'd check saddle and your straightness very carefully. if not, it's probably physical tbh.
 
If you put him into a shoulder fore it just before asking this usually works, make sure you are asking when the hind legs are in the right sequence ie as the head comes up in trot you should then be putting your canter aid on.
 
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Advice please on which exercises I can use to get my four year old cantering on the correct lead. He's fantastic on his left leg but unfortunately hasn't figured out how to canter correctly on his right!! Patience and perseverance I know are key. But with a youngster, what can I do to encourage correct canter?

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I am having exactly the same problem, although mine will go on the right lead out hacking but not in the school.

I did read somewhere about doing a leg yield to the left before the corner and then asking for canter..... although I haven't tried this yet.

I am still having to use a pole and even then it is not all the time my girly gets it right
 
I used to have the same problem with a mare I had and I tried all sorts. In the end I tried not putting my outside leg back, exaggerating bend to the right and plenty of inside leg. It worked for her. I think moving the outside leg back confused her cos she didn't bend as easily to right. Try a few differnt things and see what works and ask someone on the ground to look at position of her neck and shoulder when you ask her to canter and your position.
smile.gif
 
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