Canter help

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gill84

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Anyone who saw my post yesterday will know me and my cob had our second ever intro test today. I was stressing over nothing because we nailed it again with 2 wins out of 2 tests in our 2 outings.
Anyway I feel it only fair to progress to prelim or at least give it a go to see how he does. However is canter work doesn't exist. He is hard work to get into canter, will do 7/8 strides then falls back into trot. Anyone got any tips on encouraging his canter? I've read a few websites and alot of people say get them out on a hack and canter with another trustworthy horse. This isn't an option as my only trustworthy horse is on loan and our stables are on a busy road and anywhere quiet is a good few miles away and he's a nightmare in traffic. We have a big field I suppose. Is it just a case of persevering, keep doing canter transitions perhaps in the field rather than school? Once he's got that then introduce it to the school. Will it just come to him with work or does anybody else have a cob with lazyitus? Thanks in advance as I'm going to bed soon, early start
 
How is he on the lunge? Could you try to get him really responding to you in the lower paces, then casually pop him up into canter like it is no big deal.
Just be really firm with him, but make sure you end the session on a good note and don't wear him out too much, so he feels happy and positive.
Good luck!
 
Cantering in a big field will probably be a lot easier for him to start. Just let him canter along maybe a bit faster than your standard dressage working canter in a line. He might just find it hard to balance, you can then slowly introduce large circles until hes balanced enough to do a 20m one!
 
He will lunge but not for long. He loses interest really quickly however he loves pole work if anyone knows of any ways he can be encouraged with poles
 
I had the same issue with my girl and although we have lots of lovely hacking translating the canter from the fields back into the school took a lot of work and it's only really the last few weeks we are getting a consistent canter.

What helped me was doing tons of walk trot transitions which I think helped with muscle and balance, then instructor got me doing a really extended trot along the long sides and canter on the bends and eventually we managed to join up the bends.

Hope this helps
 
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If it is because he is lazy/not into schooling then I think trying in the big field is a good idea, since trying on a hack isn't an option. My girl is basically too clever to see the point of schooling! I have similar issues but I get bucks and messy canter, so at least you are getting some paces of ok canter by the sounds of it! Do you think a small cross pole might get him interested? You could try canter on landing, or he might just be a bit more interested.
 
I think I have the same problem as you mandwhy. Hes too clever and doesn't see why he should canter. He's ok to school but I've got about a half hour window to work him til he switches off and just won't listen. He'll canter a few strides into a small fence and a couple afterwards but then it's almost like "we done? Cool I can stop now". Just want to get him going and into prelim coz I feel slightly bad and ill feel a bit embarrassed if we keep going winning the intros and not moving up. That's how I would feel if i was someone else and there was that 1 horse that did intro every week and won it every time but never moved up. Well now I have that horse lol
 
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