Getting a horse to canter

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rallan15

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My horse was backed a 3 and was comfortable in walk trot canter and jumping by 5.
He has been in a hacking only home for the past 3 years.
I am now trying to get him back into schooling but it’s not going very well!
Whenever we’re in the school he will trot really well (I think it’s his favourite gait!) but the minute you ask him to cater he’ll refuse. I’ve tried giving encouragement with the whip (just gentle taps) but he bucks even if you just tap him. He’ll go over jumps occasionally and he’ll canter over them but only when he’s behind another horse and obviously I can’t keep doing that or I’ll never be able to take him to competitions or anything.
Pain has been completely ruled out - we’ve had the farrier and vet out.
We did a walk trot dressage test and we got 70% so he’s capable of doing well.
Does anyone have any tips on getting him moving more forward and actually getting him to move a bit faster!
Thanks
 
Is the vet sure it’s not stifle related? Just sounds very similar to how my mare’s problems started. Refusing to go into canter and when asked a bit more assertively she would just buck instead. 2 different vets, including the head vet, said she was sound. It was the physio that found she was lame and signposted the vets to find the issue. Just food for thought
 
Mine refused to canter when he had SI issues, the vet who I used at the time said he was sound and to work through it, I changed vets and got an immediate diagnosis and treatment, I think it is very difficult to totally rule out pain especially with a horse you don't know very well, I knew mine was not right because he had been here for several years.
Your horse is showing signs of a serious problem that cannot really be explained by being just used as a hack, most people canter out hacking even if they don't have many places to do so.
 
My old horse would refuse canter when he had the start of navicular. Not that i think yours will have it but my point being i had vets, physios, farriers etc all say there is nothing "wrong" when clearly there was as he was becoming more and more reluctant. was retired when one barefoot farrier suggested i test for it when i had them out to roll his toes in case of lami (no signs of it etc)
 
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