Getting excited in canter

[megwan1]

ok well over the last couple of years i have been very scared of cantering in the school or in anythin other than straight lines.....
anyways some of u may remember my post bout 2 weeks ago when i said i'd cantered in my lesson for the 1st time in bout a year....
well had another lesson 2day and did 20m circles in canter and i'm enjoyin it but fliss is starting to get excited and predicting a canter even b4 we'd started any canter work 2day
just wondering if there are any exercises or tricks i could do to get her to just chill and treat it as normal
or will i just have to keep doing it till she realises its nothing to become keen over?
thanks

 

[eventing09]

my mare is the same, gets excited in the canter. My instructor gets me to get off her back and get her to canter out of her comfort zone. By this i mean when you cantering round, get your horse to be more forward but still maintain a rhythem and balance so that the horse has to work out from the pace hes comfortable in, if that all makes sense

But try not to get too far on the forehand

 

[megwan1]

i will give this a go
fingers crossed
thanks very much

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Erk! I thought adopting a forward seat told/allowed the horse to go faster! If it was me, I'd do a zillion transitions of any combination you can think of. Put some ground poles around and play with changes of pace. put 2 parallel poles on the ground 3ft apart and come into the little "corridor" in one pace and leave it in another. Put 1 pole on the ground or draw a line in the school surface and pretend it is the edge of a cliff with a 500ft drop onto jagged rocks below. Practice nice halts just before the edge so you don't drop screaming into the sea. Use the half halt regularly to tell ned you are going to do something unpredictable, then do it! Keep ned guessing over what's gonna come next. You can count the steps too, so you do 10 in walk, 10 in trot, 10 in canter, back to 10 in trot, straight back to canter again, then canter to walk and so on. Get him really listening to you. Don't just go round and round and round. Enjoy. Have fun x

 

[MrsMozart]

Ditto B_o_F. Lots of changes of direction and transitions. Get neddy listening to you, so's she is thinking 'Ooh, what's next; what does she want. I'd better listen!'.

 

[megwan1]

thanks Bof and Mrs M think that may help more as having thort bout it fliss's most comfortable canter pace is as quick as she can lol thanks to everyone i'm sure it will be helpful!!!!