flat, fast canter!

[Jay1430]

does anyone have any suggestions for a horse with a flat canter?

i have a horse and she is brilliant but her canter is just totally flat and she rushes too much. for abit more context, you ask her to canter and she struggles the odd time to pick it up but is fine for the majority, once she’s picked up the canter it’s flat and hollow and rushed overall, if try to slow her at all she falls out of it back to a fast unbalanced trot then won’t pick it up again until iv slowed her trot back down. she can do canter poles but once again only if u let her rush or she’ll fall back into the trot.

open to any and all suggestions

 

[ycbm]

What breed is she and what is her background (yours would be helpful too).

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Jay1430]

What breed is she and what is her background (yours would be helpful too).

Welcome to the forum.!

we aren’t fully sure what she is, we were sold her as a tb cross but unsure what with, we considered she could be part trotter which could cause the canter problem but doesn’t have any indication of being a trotter ( no trotter trot or pacing) she is 10 and came to me and hadn’t done anything other than hack, never seen a jump or even been in a school however has picked everything up perfectly other than the canter! My background is a long one, iv ridden for 10 years that includes retraining racehorses and show jumping, however i understand every horse is different so i am constantly changing how i ride to suit the horse im on. hope this helps!

 

[Fingerontheneckstrap]

does anyone have any suggestions for a horse with a flat canter?

i have a horse and she is brilliant but her canter is just totally flat and she rushes too much. for abit more context, you ask her to canter and she struggles the odd time to pick it up but is fine for the majority, once she’s picked up the canter it’s flat and hollow and rushed overall, if try to slow her at all she falls out of it back to a fast unbalanced trot then won’t pick it up again until iv slowed her trot back down. she can do canter poles but once again only if u let her rush or she’ll fall back into the trot.

open to any and all suggestions

I can’t say for certain because the horse isn’t in front of me but often times rushed and unbalanced means weak, especially if she sometimes struggles to pick up a canter. Can also often mean pain so I’d definitely get her checked by physio, dentist, and check your saddle is suitable because we often overlook these things but something so small can really affect things like this massively! Also your physio may have some suggestions on what to do re: schooling to strengthen up if needed.

Maybe introduce raised walk and trot poles to get the bum engaged and strengthened, fanned trot poles to engage the core, some lateral work if she can do it, a bit of hill work to? All of this can be done in walk and trot for a few weeks and the canter can be revisited once strength is built.

Just a word of warning, space this out accordingly and don’t do pole work and hill work multiple times a week! Think of how you can be sore after using muscles you don’t usually - same applies here. I usually follow a day of polework with either a day off turned out or a light hack. On days where you aren’t doing anything intense, really strengthen up those upward and downward transitions particularly in walk and trot as these can for one get hind end engagement, but also improve the canter without actually cantering!

That’s what I’d do if weakness was the cause, but definitely worth investigating!

 

[maya2008]

Lots and lots of transitions. With youngsters, I work on walk-halt-walk, then walk-trot-walk until they are powering into the upward transition nicely. Then I ask for canter (on a corner or uphill depending on if in an arena or not!), few strides, then trot. Repeat, slowly extending the canter strides, dropping back into trot the second they rush. If they rush in trot in the transition instead of cantering, slow down, rebalance trot, ask again. Lots of praise when they do it right. That is what I do with a standard ‘can canter but green/weak’ youngster.

 

[ycbm]

I had a little ex racer who was similar and the advice I was given was to work on getting the trot really good and forget the canter in the arena. I was told that if I did that, the canter would improve, and that turned out to be correct.

I like Maya's advice above too.
.

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

I echo the above, it sounds like the horse may not be strong enough yet to do what you are asking so is having to use the wrong muscles to balance and achieve it and then cannot maintain it.

What is your hacking like? Could you get some strength up in the canter by doing some long, straight stretches out hacking? That would be my first port of call, even a big school requires a lot of strength and balance from a horse.

 

[AmyMay]

Presumably this is in the school. Where she’s being allowed to plough along on the forehand. As above, transitions and a really good instructor.

 

[jojo5]

AmyMay - do you know the OP? As you have said the horse is ‘being allowed to plough along on the forehand’? Just wondered how you knew this is happening for certain?