Canter lead conundrum!

[ellemcc]

Does anyone have any good tips for helping a young horse who is having trouble striking off on the correct lead on the right rein?

He is a 3 year old who I backed in the summer and has been comiong along wonderfully (I am very into dressage as a previous BD Talent Spotting finalist). Following some 'growing' time off over the winter I have now got him back into work (from the end of January) and we are now cantering.

However, although he is now cantering from the aids without the use of my voice (which he works well from) and in fairly good balance, he has a mental block with the right lead! He does the same on the lunge so I can't think I am unbalancing him significantly. I have tried poles, circles, exaggerating my aids...but I don't want to make an issue of the canter and spoil what we have got!

Any advice would be greatfully recieved!

 

[DuckToller]

When you say you have tried poles, have you tried raising a pole off the floor a little? Put a pole on two blocks (smallest height) in the first corner of the short side, just as the track bends, approach in the track and ask for canter as the horse gets to the 'jump'. This sometimes works better than a pole but horse needs to be reasonably balanced to cope and comfortable over something a few centimetres off the floor. He may not be ready for this exercise yet so store it for later if you are still having problems...

Other than that, no further ideas, just time and schooling to increase his suppleness and balance, and as you wisely say, don't make an issue of it.

 

[pocket]

poles work well for canter lead, I used it with my pony and it worked a treat

 

[Partoow]

Hi there, this can often happen on the right rein as they tend to get on their shoulders and fall in with or without you onboard!.
When you are on the lunge try and stay a little more at his shoulder or point the whip at his shoulder so that you imagine you can push him straight for a moment. I place myself on the center line of the school and walk 3 or 4 steps on this line so that they go straight and then circle again. This just gets them stepping a bit more under themselves so thet they find that right hind leg a bit more forward rather than swinging their quaters out and then getting on their inside shoulder.
If you carry this idea to when you are riding make sure , because it is easy to fall in to the trap that you dont try too hard and also lean in over that shoulder.
They often dont really contact with that outside rein very easily so introduce a little bit of leg yeilding from about 3/4 of the way across the school back to the long side. Making sure that you step him side ways and forward from the inside leg at the girth and keep his shoulders sightly right but still leading the movement. The outside rein stays quietly at about the d-ring by the wither. not down and blocking but just still and 'available' [ ie dont wiggle it about or push it down! just hold it in your hand rather like the feeling of trying to hold a butterfly without squashing its wings] If he trys to collapse back to the wall through that shoulder then think straight ahead parrallel to the long side and do this by applying a hold pressure behind the girth with the left leg make him step straight and then ask for the legyeild again.
This exercise does two things it moves him forward to the outside rein [ thus connecting him from the inside hind to the outside rein] and gets you thinking about the co-odination and balance that you the rider needs to develope to help him develope his to be able to take the canter.
Once you have this happening smoothly, fowards and sideways as you reach the track tap with the inside leg and feel the outsde rein as the outside

shoulder comes back to you and ask for the canter thinking that you are going to squeeze him like toothpste out of the tube between that asking inside leg and the hold of the outside rein. with the outside leg back so that it helps him keep that outside hind from stepping out. It means then that he will have no option but to use that right hind to activate the canter up and forward.
Hope that helps​

 

[chriscrogul]

Have had this problem with my own horse, an ex racer; what worked for me was picking a suitable place in school to always ask for right canter, in his case was as we were turning back towards yard, so taking advantage of his natural "green lean", also creates a "habit of when we get here we canter right". Always work on bad rein first so leg sequence "stuck" in brain, ask for outside bend so that you are "freeing" up the inside shoulder/leading leg. Hope that some of these tips are helpful!