Exercises to improve canter

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xp0u4076

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Hi, I'm quite new here so hope this is the right forum..
Basically I am looking for exercises to improve my horses canter, hes a 8yr 16.1h eventer competing up to novice level at the moment (hoping to do an intermediate this season...!) his canter has never seemed as flowing as my other TbX (this gelding is a bit heavier)
He jst doesnt seem to have the same movement through his stife; never causes a problem jumping he's consistently jumping 1.20; or galloping. Do some horses just have a bad canter?
Ive tried the usual lengthening and shortening to get him to sit back but he finds it difficult. Do I just keep doing this until he can do it no problem or are there any other exercises I can do? Hes consistenly getting 6s in his dressage (think we may have had one 7) and I really want to improve on this!

Sorry its a bit of a ramble, and thanks in advance for any replies!
Ooh forgot to add, his trot and walk are fine, get good marks for these (sometimes..)
 
I would do loads of canter poles and gridwork. Also do lots of walk to canter and trot, canter transitions, leg yielding in to canter etc. These will all get your horse more on to his quarters and rounding. I think you can improve canters
 
He can do walk and trot to canter well; canter to trot is fine but he doesnt do canter to walk unless very collected. The canter seems unbalanced which i alway put down to age but as he's 9 this year i cant use that excuse forever!
 
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I would do loads of canter poles and gridwork. Also do lots of walk to canter and trot, canter transitions, leg yielding in to canter etc. These will all get your horse more on to his quarters and rounding. I think you can improve canters

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Will this also help a horse get the correct cnater lead?
I can never get the correct lead on the right rein, but on the left he is fine.
 
You need to quicken the hindlegs by the sounds of things. Tap him on the 1/4s with a schooling whip when you feel the hindlegs get lazy. Do lots of riding forward into a medium canter but not too much collection unless you've got a very powerful working canter already. Ride shoulder fore in canter to encourage the hindleg to come a little more under and spiral circles are great too.

We have a good horse with a weak canter and whislt it will never be his best pace, helping the canter on the flat does improve his jump significantly
 
Hello
I don't know if these will specifically help with your problem but there are two exercises that I do when schooling in canter...
1) Trot a 20m circle, spiral in to a 10 or 5 if you can get that small in a nice steady trot. Once you've done one or two small circles well leg yield out to the track and as you hit the track pick up canter. His hind should be well underneath him as you approach the track.

2) Squares! this is a little complicated so I might not explain it too well!
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CHEHBMC ie instead of doing a 20 metre circle go in a square to all the markers that you would normally pass on the circle (kind of)
At C pick up canter, canter to E and 2 strides before E ask your horse to walk, ride straight to all the corners and as you make the square turn across to B, when his hind is underneath him, ask him for walk to canter. Ride him straight again to the next corner, there should be a post in the corner of the school for you to work towards. You should be walking literally as you are a stride from the corner, walk for one to two strides as you make the turn and pick up the canter half way through the turn.
My horse found this incredibly exciting, would make the turn and half way through it would launch and leap into canter- silly boy! In that case we have to put in a stride or two of trot to walk before the turn but he still finds it exciting!
 
My horse's weakest pace is canter, I have been working lots in trot to help improve his balance and asking him to work long and low so he is in self carrage.
Transitions within the pace help as well as this will encourage him to work from behind and again improve his balance. When I did canter I again made sure I rode the transitions as well as I could and kept it simple by not circling tightly and at all times rode leg to hand to encourage him to move forward.
His canter is by no way what you would call fantastic, but there is a huge improvement in it.
 
Hi for wrong leading legs ask for a slight bit of counter flexion before you ask for the canter works a treat, worked with my horse who wouldnt do left canter. works everytime.
 
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