Friesian owners - help with canter!

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Hoppa

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Hi,

I have a friesian cross (more friesian than x) he is a rescue so no idea of background etc.

Bringing him back into work very slowly, a mixture of lungeing, long reining, long hacks at walk, work over poles, gentle ridden schooling etc he seems to get bored in the school quickly, but is very willing.

He has a terrible unbalanced canter and always sets off on the wrong leg, I have heard that this is not that uncommon for his type.

He can now manage a couple of circuits of canter on the lunge (on one rein), and a few decent strides ridden in a straight line, before he gets his legs in a knot and reverts to super fast trot.

I'm working on slowing the trot right down when ridden before asking for a few strides of canter which seems to be working better.

Anyone have any experience or suggestions of what else I can do?

Also out of interest what bits and saddle do you use for you friesians? Currently have him in a passier dressage saddle which is really cut back to make way for the HUGE shoulders, but he's growing out of it :-(

Thanks
 
bumping for you as I know there were a lot of owners of lovely fresians on here due to the recent pictures thread (if you haven't already search for it!)
 
I eventually took my girl hunting to get her to canter. She was 5yo at the time and wasn't well balanced enough to trot on a lunge let alone canter. I had tried while out hacking but with no success, she just did 'friesian big trot' so when our local drag hunt came around off I went. That worked for getting her to canter in a straight line, it then took another 2 years off and on (I don't really do schooling as such) to get balanced properly - a lot of that was down to her still growing though!

When she was a bit better with her balance I got her to canter on the correct leg by over exagerating everything - leg aids, voice and bend until she 'got' what I was asking for then it was just repetition until it became normal for her.

As for tack, her bit is a kimblewick - she hates any form of jointed bit but loves curbed bits and goes very well and lightly in the kimblewick. I have 2 saddles, a wintec dressage for when she's slim but I also have a treeless and find that I ride more in the treeless than I do in the wintec. I am saving up though for a phryso saddle!
 
Thanks tickles :-)

and madlady, interesting about the bit, he also hates jointed bits! And has such a sensitive mouth.

Just another thought, he is good with leg aids to go forward/ down a transition, but tends to complete ignore my legs if I'm asking him to move outwards or sideways. He actually seems to come into the leg instead of move away from it, is this another Friesian trait?
 
I know exactly how you feel, I've had 2 friesians and both had to be taught how to canter. My first had been driven and my second/current one had 5 years as a broodmare. The secret I found with both of them was just getting them to go forward. I found the school wasnt big enough, so when I was introducing canter I did it in the fields and just encouraged them to go forward whether it was from a big trot or from a walk I didnt care I just wanted them to realise there was another pace after big trot!
My advice would be dont be embarrassed about how ugly the transition feels and if you can go rising into the canter from the big trot, as I know its VERY hard to sit to, that helps rather than bringing them back to steady trot and starting again. Also, when he does the big trot just keep squeezing, don't back off, keep encouraging and praise the hell out of him when he's in the canter cos he'll probably be terrified. I found with both mine the more you slowed them in the trot the more flustered they got. Then once he's got the idea of what canter is you can start slowing the trot down.
It took a good years work to get reasonable transitions from both of them but now I can get a decent walk to canter without a fuss!

I have always ridden in snaffles and use a Lemetex dressage saddle.

Hope this helps!
 
jjbarney I'm afraid 'bumping' isn;t as exciting as you might think ;-) It just means posting again on a thread to 'bump' it to the top of the forum.
 
Hoppa said:
Thanks tickles :-)

and madlady, interesting about the bit, he also hates jointed bits! And has such a sensitive mouth.

Just another thought, he is good with leg aids to go forward/ down a transition, but tends to complete ignore my legs if I'm asking him to move outwards or sideways. He actually seems to come into the leg instead of move away from it, is this another Friesian trait?
Click to expand...

Dandea has a very sensitive mouth but also very low roof of mouth and quite a thick tongue - it was getting to the point where any contact from a snaffle had her practically rearing, I tried a couple of others before the kimblewick but she seemed to really click with that and has always gone really well in it.

She did also used to lean into pressure rather than away from it so I taught her from the ground, I started giving her a verbal 'over' command when I wanted her to move sideways helped along with a poke and once she'd got that - which she did fairly quickly, I put it into practice ridden - again over exagerated everything. Pulled my leg right back, gave a verbal command, over did it with the rein and practically hung out of the saddle but again she clicked fairly quickly and now will move away from a little leg and twitch of rein.

This time with my filly I'm a bit ahead, I didn't get Dandea until she was turned 3 and nothing had been done with her at all but with Freyja I have been teaching her from day 1 of being born how to move to the side, back up - that was another thing I had difficulty with - as a result she walks out beautifully now and understands lots of verbal commands which I'm hoping will make the whole backing and schooling process a little easier in a couple of years when she is ready.
 
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