Exercises to strengthen canter...

[NewHeights_SJ]

As most of you know i have recently purchased a young mare that is a little green. Her canter needs some work and i wondered if anyone could give me some advice on excerises to strengthen it? She is a little wobbly and finds it hard round the corners or on a circle, but she works nicely in an outline.

Any suggestions? As normal canter work is going to get boring!!

N xx

 

[Mrs_Wishkabibble]

Pessoas are good for that

 

[kerilli]

spiralling in and out, lots of transitions, keeping the canter sessions short. leg yielding out to the track, shallow loops in canter, gentle contrabend in canter.
walk trot canter trot walk canter trot walk canter etc on a 20m ish circle is a good one.
you'll end up being an eventer at this rate!

 

[kate081]

I found a good exercise was a square of poles so that you can circle 20m outside them & a diamond of poles inside so that you get about a 10m circle inside them (diagram below!). You can then spiral in & out varying the size of the circle. The poles help circle accuracy & act as support like the fence of a school does. Also 2 poles at 180 degrees or 4 poles at right angles on a circle are good for maintaining the length of stride & helping with speed/balance.

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[viola]

How are her half-halts? Try riding lots of quality transitions trot-canter and canter-trot on a big circle. If she does walk to canter then ride lots of these too. Transitions work wonders

They should introduce your mare to half-halts so you can then balance the canter better.
Strike offs out of leg-yield are good too as will keep her inside hind leg underneath (as in leg-yield right and strike off on the left lead).