- Canter to trot transitions

[ZoeCharlotte]

Don't post particularly often, bit of a lurker, so forgive me if you haven't seen me around!

After lots of moving around yards for the past few years, I've settled down at a lovely place where I'm doing odd jobs, including some schooling and exercising. My current project steed is a green 9yo who initially thought he could get away with everything; he's changed his mind on that part at least! What I'm trying to deal with at the moment is his canter to trot transitions, which tend to take the form of running as fast as he possibly can in what can only loosely be described as a sort of trot (!), until I haul him back into something respectable. He's very forward going but when he's warmed up he's fairly responsive, but I'm just not sure how to figure this one out? Is it a case of coming out of canter and slowing to a halt very soon afterwards to establish that he can't run around, or is it something I'm totally missing?

Would really appreciate anything anyone has to offer, including stuff that I'm being cr@p at! He's been allowed to get away with a lot in the past, so advice is much appreciated!
Thanks!

 

[ZoeCharlotte]

Any ideas?

 

[metalmare]

Is he really working between your hand and leg?

Is it a balance issue? Work over trotting poles maybe to encourage him to engage his quarters more?

 

[ZoeCharlotte]

Trotting poles sounds like a good idea, he can be a bit wobbly sometimes so balance could be something to work on for his quarters, thanks. His reluctance to pay attention to aids is something that just needs persistence I guess, poles it is!

 

[Goldenstar]

In the canter on a 20m circle when you want to trot turn the shoulders and ride onto a smaller circle and as you do ask for trot that's is often a good way to improve the transition as soon as he trots establish a good trot so it's not trot fall in a heap rest and then sort out . You just have to do lots of them.once they get it you develop it into a slight shoulder in positioning and trot.
Hope that helps if it's any consolation I always struggle abit to train it.

 

[ZondaR]

It sounds as though he is not balanced and on the forehand. A good change of gait comes from behind. The horse needs to be working in a rhythm and not on the forehand so that when he transitions down he is not in danger of falling forwards. If his weight is on the forehand and he changes from canter to trot he has to rush as all his weight is in front of him.

I would suggest that before you transition from canter to trot, prepare the horse by steadying the canter, do some half halts to help balance him, sit up, squeeze with your legs and restrict forward motion with your hands. It will also help if you ask for the transition on a circle. Work on transitions within the canter, extending and collecting, as this will help the horse with his balance.

You also need to establish rhythm in walk and trot if you want any hope of a balanced canter. Your trot to canter transition should not have any rushed trot steps either. If you feel him rushing the trot and falling into canter, dont let him. Bring the trot back to a good rhythm and good balance, give the canter aid clearly and he will step forward into canter.

It's a green horse. You still have a lot of work to do and it sounds to me like you now need to work on his rhythm and his balance.

Best of luck!

 

[Littlelegs]

Improve the trot to canter transistion. And focus on improving the trot & canter too. And your description of hauling him plus the fast running trot makes me think you aren't riding forwards into the downward transistion, just changing pace not speed. You need to half halt in canter to prepare him for the downward transition. If you don't have an instructor get a friend to film you as you may spot something you are doing to encourage it.
Alternatively ride bareback or no stirrups, you'll soon get in the habit of asking correctly for a forwards transistion to trot. People only have to try hauling & receiving a mad trot once or twice to learn to do it another way!

 

[YardGeek]

I have the opposite problem and my horse tends to flop into the trot, however, I think the soloution is roughly the same for both problems.

My instructor gave me the advice of trying to complete the transition using only my seat and the positioning of my upper body, so leaving the reins to provide a constant contact for the horse to work into.
To prepare to transition think about sitting up taller, bringing your shoulders back and 'compressing' the canter with your body, not your hand (although a half halt with outside rein may be needed the first few times). Once you feel the canter is more controlled and adaptable you ask for the downward transition, keeping your legs on but not in a 'forward' way in a 'supporting' way, remembering to keep your shoulders back and deepending the seat.
If the horse still decides to evade the transition use 10m circles directly after the transition to re-engage the back end and gain control, this can also be acheived by using poles.

I would also recomend only riding short bursts of canter between markers to sort of de-sensitise the horse to the downward transition and build its confidence and balance.

 

[sandi_84]

OP my boy and I have had similar problems especially in the beginning, he is also pretty green.
My RI has us do a lot of transitions in walk/halt walk/trot to get him listening and work at doing circles and serpentines of various sizes. Last week we paid a lot of attention to getting a nice active walk with the hind legs really engaged and did some figure 8's of decreasing size along with some other bits and bobs that we usually do.
As we've progressed his balance has become much better and he holds himself up now too and as a result our trot/canter is no longer a mad dash run up including a funny hop into canter and recently we have been getting much smoother canter/trot transitions too, managing to come back to a nice forward trot without me feeling like I'm going to be bounced off or feeling like he is running off.
The only thing I can suggest (in my really limited and very humble opinion) is work loads on balancing as others have suggested, transitions to get him listening are great anyway so lots of those too and just patience. He'll get there soon enough Good luck!