Do you have canter "spots"?

Peregrine Falcon

Peregrine Falcon

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People do say don't canter/gallop you horse in the same spots in the same place on a regular basis, but how many of you do?!

I know I'm guilty, I am lucky enough to ride out on the forest and there are fantastic (and many) opportunities for a good pipe opener. I've ridden my boy for 15 years here now and there are spots where I know I may be in trouble if I try and hold him back too much.

My problem is now that I didn't think about the long term consequences. I am now leading out my 6yo son on his pony, April, and based on my pony's recent performance I think I better make sure I ride him more before I have him getting April excited too!!
 
I'm always very concious of this so try not to, so alternate between walking 'the track' and cantering and trotting, but have a particular field where I do my fittening work but only go there for canter/fast work so she's sort of got the idea of that field :S
 
I have canter spots, but sometime I walk down them, others I trot and sometimes I canter so pony never knows. We do have a open field that we gallop in and doing fittening work, but again sometimes we walk/trot or canter for a change.
 
Unfortunately don't have many to choose from so just try and mix it up best I can but fortunately she's a good girl and listens and never bolts or gets over excited, unlike my friends pony who frequently disappears over the horizon!
 
Yes but I often walk or trot them, or do transitions. Even though we have a lot of off road riding there are only certain places which are suitable for a canter or gallop!
 
We have a couple of canter spots but sometimes we just walk all the way round so he doesn't always expect it
 
We do have certain canter spots, i.e. places that are suitable for a canter/gallop on a hack, but like others who have posted here I make sure he doesn't always canter on the canter spots so he doesn't anticipate it. Quite often we can't canter there anyway if it's been raining a lot and it's really boggy, so he has to be used to walking and trotting down the canter tracks too. Luckily he's a pretty good boy out hacking so I don't often have a problem *touches wood*.
 
We have limited space for cantering but make sure that we sometimes walk in a canter spot and that the horses never canter before they are asked for this reason.
 
The majority of the time I have a job to get my lazy chap moving, he's as horizontal as they come! He's the type you can leave for months and go out for a ride and he's exactly the same. I rarely canter these days as he's not fit enough and the ground isn't suitable for tearing up. He had a few naughty small bucks the other week coming back home, a bit of joy de vivre, so that's what got me thinking.

After owning him for 20 years we know each other very well so I tend to know what he's going to do before he's done it. I could feel the back go up and anticipated what was about to happen. So far though, he's been a good boy leading April out.
 
Yep, but he's fab so if I tell him we're not cantering, he doesn't bother trying anything on.

There was only one place (at my old yard) that he would get a bit wound up about...but that's because that was our "blast" track. He would walk or trot or whatever, but he would NOT be happy about it. Thankfully, it was very much avoidable if I didn't want to do fast work that day!
 
If I think about it, on fast hacks we canter a lot so avoid to a certain degree, the concept of canter spots.

The horses are pretty smart as they keep to the intended pace and look after themselves when the ground is boggy or frozen.

It's more difficult if suitable stretches for cantering are few and far between, as the temptation is always to make the most of it, particularly on a bright winters day.
 
I made one on purpose. I was struggling to teach my young boy to strike into canter without falling into it on the correct lead. So I cantered in the same place each time we hacked and he really started to understand. Sometimes i would circle left first and sometimes right to get the lead i wanted.
I can walk him up that track though, he doesn't get too giddy :)
 
Had to smile when i read the post thinking of our one particular canter spot, its on our YO land nice track up a small incline and half way there is like a s shape bend then straight track. Well 8/10 times we dont have too much of a problem he normally as we turn the corner gets a bit excited and starts to jog but on the odd occassion squels and to put it politley pisses off i do get him back but doing an s bend at full speed never really pleases me but he never worries me as i know i can pull him up and he certainly knows by my tone of voice i am not too pleased but he enjoys himself i know i am not in a difficulties and once in a while i dont mind at 18 i am happy he can move like Usain Bolt.
I certainly dont mind on my horse who i know inside out but wouldnt like it on a horse i didnt know
 
Yes I do, and if I don't want to canter there for whatever reason I don't have a problem stopping her depending on what mood shes in she can just walk normally or we would just get a very pretty sideways jog but she'd never try and gallop off with me ;)
 
I'm guilty of it to! I am now trying to walk once at them though. Having said that, he does act up if I don't let him go, just prancing around, bunny hops and little bucks - all of which is sittable!
We're trying to turn canter spots into walk spots now and it's going quite well to be fair on him! :)
 
god I feel sick just reading this thread !, my old boy could be such a prat and gradually knocked away at my confidence to the extent that I rarely ride now. I can feel his enormous bucks just sitting at my desk ! gulp !!
 
I can't be too picky in my location. And anyway, if I didn't canter in the same place every time I hacked then I've never be able to get a canter out of Jock! He refuses to canter in any place that isn't our 'usual' cantering spots. Being the dependable beginners' favourite sort of riding school pony that he is, he wouldn't dream of acting up if he ever had to walk instead of canter past a usual spot. Having said that, he will feel my intention of cantering before I physically ask him and may occasionally break into a stride or two of canter without yet being officially 'asked', but that's only because I don't tell him to slow down and will instead spur on this rare bout of new-found energy! Any hint of forwardness from Jock must be taken as an opportunity not to be sniffed at. I'm lucky if I can get a decent trot out of him half the time! And I've given up asking for canter unless we're heading towards the yard!
 
Yep, we have canter spots but as others have said we walk and trot on them sometimes too. There is one field that my mare likes to launch herself into and we have a little discussion about it but if you put a total novice on her she will walk as quiet as a lamb through the same spot.
 
I do! But he's been galloping up the hill for 15 years and I've only been riding 1!

Have been persevering and had lots of arguments when I MADE him walk up it and can now get him into trot around the corners where it's a bit blind. And he only starts galloping when I tell him to :D

But he does get really bouncy down the road on the way to it lol!

Plus he took off up it the very first time I ever went out on him (that's what gave me the bug! ) x
 
Yes, anything remotely green is a go for Bobs, he anticipates given any opportunity, sometimes I call his bluff and walk or trot but we get a bit of bouncy first! I live near forestry too, way hey! he just loves it!
 
Yes as suitable ground is limited in the woods unless I go on a much longer and exceedingly more adventurous hack.

On the longer hack where there are long open field gallops he can turn into a bit of a tit so I try not to always canter or gallop in the same place but it is difficult as sometimes it is easier just to let him go otherwise it takes forever to get around.
 
yes on one of them - if i dont ask him to canter he will just walk along on a long rein...the other however i cant canter out as if you canter him in one place once he takes off there every time and you cant stop so it generally makes hacking dangerous so we dont canter out.
 
At the moment I have one canter spot of about ten seconds, so its always a bit 'buck buck, Weeee! No don't want to stop.... Oh ok there's a corner' I only canter maybe one out of three times as we are still on our first canters really, short and sweet! I am however possibly moving soon and the number of places I will be able to canter in good weather conditions has already blown my mind I'm excited :-) one of my favourite things is to have a great big space where it is safe to gallop flat out for a good while, as I love to practise transitions safely. This is the thing thst leads to confident fast work for me, not frantically pulling up when we've just found a rhythm :-)
 
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