Cantering a Young Horse

MiaBarrett

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I have a 6 year old 15.1hh Irish sports horse - whenever I canter him in the school he rushes and the canters very quickly (almost a gallop), we've only ever had 1 normal canter (I've had him 8 months) - he's been checked by the saddler, physio, dentist and vet and there have been no problems - and whenever he canters whilst hacking he's a star? What could cause and this and how can I stop it? Thank you x
 
Sounds like he is just unbalanced. It takes a lot more balance to canter in a school.

Keep the canter very short ie just along the short side of the school, or half a 20m circle.

meanwhile increase the cantering while hacking if you can
 
Thank you :)

Your very welcome. Just keep doing lots of short canters and increase it as you go along. It maybe that he can only manage 2/3 strides before losing his balance so try and come back to trot before he does. Even if that means you only get 2 strides to start with
 
he also might be struggling to balance if the surface in your school isn't good, or if the arena is small.
 
Know this feeling well - sometimes feels like the wall of death!

The more he canters, the better it will be. When you do get canter, only do a few strides before trotting again, the more transitions you can do the better it will become :)
 
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