Exercises to stop horse rushing from canter to trot...

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wench

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Any ideas for any exercises to stop horse rushing in canter to trot transition. Problem is about 60% horse 40% rider.

Horse is work in progress in "proper" flatwork as has previously been ridden around an arena in canter as fast as possible doing the best possible giraffe impression possible.

She still finds canter all very exciting, and why would she want to slow down! She is a bit unbalanced and a bit against the hand, but not too bad. I need to help get her hocks under her to slow everything down, but what would people suggest?

I tend to stay in sitting trot after canter as it helps massively to bring the trot back to normal. I have also tried canter a few strides, Trot a few, canter again etc, but that tends to just end up getting very messy
 
Come right back to walk/ halt, settle then trot on?

When my youngster gets too excited we stop compose ourselves and then start again, which seems to be working well, but she's probably a lot earlier on in her work so not sure if it will be helpful.
 
agree with the above and just cantering on a 20 metre circle to start with can help as she can't pick up so much speed, I had a mare that would just pop into canter when asked for trot so I spent months just going back to walk and halt and trying again and it did work.
 
Mine does this and in our lessons as the others say use a curve but also really sit up, really tall, close your legs and collect the canter so really engaging the hind end to step under then slow/bounce the canter to come back to trot, so they have to step under not run once in trot.
This does take me a lot of control but when I get it right he cannot run off when coming back to trot as off the forehand and not running through the bridle.
Hope it makes sense.
 
Heya,

I would do all of the above but add in one more thing for the rider - to breath out during the downward transition. If the horse is tense the rider is tense also, but the rider has to fix themselves first before the horse can! Practise this is walk-halt then trot-walk with the breathwork, should be a fairly loud breath out combined with relaxing the shoulders down and opening the chest and sinking weight through the stirrups. Every horse I've done this one has picked it up amazingly quickly and are softer throughout all of their work. If the rider struggles to remember to breath out have them verbally say "woah" or somesuch as will do the same effect.

But remember no verbal commands in dressage comps as (in nz anyway) you're marked down for it.
 
It sounds like the issue is not the transition but the quality of the canter prior to the transition. The tips given so far are good but if the canter is flat and running the horse will be on the forehand and the downward transition will not be good.

The improvement to canter is not just made by cantering. I would assess the quality of the walk and trot, the ability to stretch long and low, in walk first then trot. Check the responsiveness to the go and stop aids and of course rider position, suppleness and alignment. Canter needs a slight bend through the body so use arena patterns - figures of 8, serpentines etc to increase lateral suppleness and then use transition work to build the ability to wait for you.

Then look at the canter again, on a 20m circle and work on inviting a steadier, more relaxed canter. This all needs doing before you can expect a quality canter to trot transition.
Have fun!
 
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