Does anyone else struggle to get RS horses to canter?

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wench

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Just musing really... I have my own horses, but haven't ridden for a while, so need to go back to the RS to get my confidence back before getting on mine... It's going well so far, and I have been riding some really nice RS horses. The only trouble is that, no matter which one I'm on, I struggle to get it to canter. The majority of the problem will come from having my own horses that you think canter, and it canters.

However, when I try and get RS horse to canter, needless to say it doesn't. I don't help the problem, I ask for leg aids correctly, and horse carries on trotting. I eventually end up getting hunched up and legs in the wrong places as I keep on trying harder to get the horse to canter. Usually the best I get is a faster trot. As you can imagine, you just end up going around and around the school ending up with the same problem over and over again.

Last lesson was slightly better in the fact I wasn't looking so much like a hunch back, but still wasn't perfect. Any tips?
 
no tips sorry but I know exactly what you mean. i had been a obe horse rider for years and my old boy will walk to canter in the blink of an eye and trot to canter just happens in an instant.
yet when i went to a dealers yard and rode about 6 horses could I get a canter!????? nope, well certainly not a pretty transition anyway!
 
Yes. I went to an RS for some lessons having had a 20 year break. I had ridden very occasionally, out on a hack, a few times in that time. The first horse I was given to ride was so dead to the leg I felt like a Thelwell cartoon. Canter was only achieved by running into it. Collection was impossible - I put it down to me lacking the right muscles. Second horse was supposedly a dressage cob. Instructor kept saying 'he does run into canter'. Third was an ex showjumper - and of all the horses, I would have thought that he would canter when asked. Instructor yelling head off, and still not happening. I hear your pain.

So, I took matters into my own hands - and legs. I found that if I sat right up, and then slid my backside to the outside of the saddle so weight is on the outside, really exaggerated my outside leg behind the girth and raised my inside hand significantly, canter happened. Instructor wondered what the h*ll I was doing, but when I smugly replied 'cantering', she had to concede. Gradually reduced the exaggeration over the next few lessons. I guess they get ridden by so many people, they get such confused messages that they have to learn your own requests.

HTH
 
Could you ask for a lunge lesson? If they have a horse suitable for it, could be a good way of you not having to think about steering or anything else & if horse works off voice aids instructor/whoever is lunging the horse can ask the horse to canter by voice while you work on position & aids & start to combine the two? Just an idea!
Not had this problem at RS as not ridden in one in years but did have it with mine, really had to get a good trot (not too long & low or strung out) and sit up as I asked- the more I sat forward, the more on the forehand & faster trot he went, if I sat up & looked up it did work much better!
 
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