Canter right depart issues

Casey76

Casey76

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My 8-yo mare is finding the canter depart on the right rein very difficult, and will 9/10 times strike off on the left leg. It's not just me who has the issue, so I know it's not solely down to my bad balance. Having said that, whenever I lunge (not very often), she will always go on the right leg.

I know she is unbalanced and is very left dominant, so we usually work on laterals twice as much on the right rein as left (start on the right, move to the easier left rein, then finish on the right) when I'm schooling.

She was seen by an osteopath within the last three months, and there is no reason (skeletally) why she can't pick up the right canter lead. Once she is cantering on the right leg she is fine, and she will change legs happily over a jump (this is not something I do - I don't leave the ground!)

Now I have to say, I haven't been cantering that long (despite my long term horse ownership) due to various confidence issues, and I'm very much still at the stage of "ask and hang on" rather than "ask on the correct foot fall and steer"

I know what my issues are (my balance is off, my timing is abysmal, my contact is too strong or non-existant) however we have no issues with canter left. With canter right, it's almost as if it is just an ingrained habit now. When I watch others ride I can see Tartine strike off, then collapse straight back into trot because she is on the wrong leg as she is so used to being pulled up for being on the wrong leg.

We have tried alternately asking her to keep going on the wrong leg for a few strides so at least she is cantering on the right rein, to stopping straight away and re-asking.

Various instructors have called her various names for being unaccomadating/unforgiving, and we (between three riders) have tried a whole gamut of "tricks" to get the right strike off.

Personally I've had the most success with doing a very "deep" leg yield from left to right then immediately canter right on a 15m circle.

I also find that the more you ask the more Tartine anticipates and this gives almost a guaranteed wrong strike off. the instructors ofted insist on ask, and ask and ask immediately and straight away. Which I observe Tartine getting upset about (to anthropmorphise). Personally I can't even react that quickly, and it always takes me a little while to get all of my ducks in a row again (slow reaction time has the same source as the poor proprioception and poor balance - which I believe to be a brain injury I received when I was 16).

According to the osteo, there is no physical reason why she should find the right strike off any more difficult than the left, other than that she is very left dominant

Her lateral work is good, and we are doing "everything" (LY, SI, haunches in etc with true and counter flexion) in trot in lessons, though still mainly schooling alone in walk

I'm currently not having pure dressage lessons as I can't ride for more than 15-20 mins at the moment due to aforementioned hip injury. Plus, despite living in France, "French school" lessons are impossible to come by, and I'm conflicted about paying for lessons where I know I'm going to ignore the instruction on how to ride trot (sit straight, rise straight up and down) etc.

I do I know I need to get her off her left shoulder when asking for the right canter lead, any specific exercises that would help?

Thanks :)
 
Pop a pole in the corner and ask for canter over the pole, this will also help you as you have a firm visual to ride at and a point to organised at.

If you have them in opposite corners of the school then you can have a go twice on each circuit with enough time to reorganise yourself :)

Keep pluugging away and it will suddenly happen!
 
Agree with putting a pole in the corner, it's always worked for me :) Try a pole flat on the floor first, and if that doesn't do the trick then raise one side so that she has to lift to strike off. If that works then you can start working more on that rein - the more she does the easier it should get (in theory!)

Also - you say that she strikes off correctly on the lunge - would it be worth putting a rider on her on the lunge so that she learns to balance the rider that way?
 
I've had the exact same problem for ages& have just cracked it ! Basically they drop the right rein contact & throw all their weight solid onto that left shoulder. Be so careful about straightness on both reins & do not dominate with the left rein contact, you must build up to having plenty of right rein contact as well. You do this by doing an absolute ton of lateral work; really steep leg yields and shoulder in to get them onto that right rein contact . She will want to go crooked every 3 secs so you will have to constantly be correcting that crookedness every few secs with a leg yield or shoulder in. Don't forget forwardness as well; they can't be straight without forwardness. Think of being able to unleash them into a medium/ extended trot at any given moment . You will have to introduce the lateral work at a v slow pace at first; and then as she becomes more balanced/ straight and even, throw in practises with medium / extended trots.
Then when you have the straightness ( remember no over bending to the inside on circles/ corners) you can ask for right canter; the Carl Hester way is to ask for canter with the OUTSIDE leg not yet inside leg as this gives a far better canter depart transition . She will likely drop the right rein in the transition at first; & throw her left shoulder out so what I did was left rein canter cricle first, making sure she's even in both reins & is coming round the left circle with a true outside leg & outside hand NOT the inside hand. Might have to lower& widen the outside rein to try & achieve this.
So do the left canter circle correctly first then do a figure of 8 ; as you change the rein into the right rein the weight will be even & she should be nice and straight with a contact into the right rein. Then that's the moment to ask for right canter . If the straightness and forwardness is there she should just pop straight into right canter.

It's just all about correcting the crookedness& simply getting them truely straight and forwards into the correct contact down the rein!
 
Try bending her to the outside and making sure you are giving with your inside hand and keeping your inside hip forward. This is a short term fix and ultimately you work towards straightening her up and then on the correct bend. It works very well with a habit like this. I wouldn't be bothering with an instructor who blames the horse instead of finding ways to solve it.

I have a welsh C I could rarely get to canter on the right for over a year until a very good instructor told me to do this. She now canters on the correct lead no problem at all, on a straight line or anywhere just from my leg position.
 
I had a similar problem with my pony and found that trotting a very small circle in the corner and then asking for canter just as we came out of it did the trick.
 
Have you tried seeing a physio? I only say that as my mum is one and the amount of riders who load either the left or right stirrup do to them being out is huge! I know you said you had an injury so this may be the reason. Hope you crack it soon :)
 
FfionWinnie said:
Try bending her to the outside and making sure you are giving with your inside hand and keeping your inside hip forward. This is a short term fix and ultimately you work towards straightening her up and then on the correct bend. It works very well with a habit like this. I wouldn't be bothering with an instructor who blames the horse instead of finding ways to solve it.

I have a welsh C I could rarely get to canter on the right for over a year until a very good instructor told me to do this. She now canters on the correct lead no problem at all, on a straight line or anywhere just from my leg position.
Click to expand...

This. We had one who struggled with right canter, he is now right 99.9% of the time. He did have SI issues which we treated but the 'bend to the outside' was a real light bulb moment in the transition.
 
Well I had a lesson on Monday (supposedly easy lesson to gentle me back into riding ha!) After a great canter transition on the left, and I failed miserably on the left and threw my toys out of the pram and said "you do it" to my instructor... (well I did that in my head, irl I was more polite as said, "I'm really having problems, would you mind trying") Of course instructor gets on, asks three times, and three times gets the right leg strike off :bangshead:

I get back on, and out of about 20 requests for canter right, I get ONE on the right leg :bangsheadagain:

On the plus side... she went into canter at every ask, with very light aids (gotta think of the positives!)

I finished the lesson with canter left, including a re-ask when she broke.

We are both having a couple of days off, me because I've paggared my back with all of the canter work, and Tartine as she had the dentist yesterday.

Once I'm back on board I'll try your suggestions to use counter flexion.

thanks all :)
 
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