Green pony in canter

[J_sarahd]

So now that Badger is no long tense in walk and trot in the school, our next step is to tackle the canter before we think about jumping. It’s very fast, disorganised and unbalanced. It feels like he’s tanking around the school and it’s very hard to stop him as he goes very onto the forehand and leans on the bit. One of the other liveries said that youngsters tend to have very fast canters due to not having the right muscle or balance (she said this before I cantered, so she didn’t see the canter).

Are there any exercises to help his canter? I’m having lessons soon, just don’t want to do something wrong beforehand as he learns SO quickly and I’d rather try and teach him as much as possible before and in between lessons.

Plus, is the other livery right? Will his canter improve the more balanced and less green he becomes?

Also anyone who saw my tongue over the bit thread - I took his flash completely off and he’s much happier. Still putting his tongue over the bit, but definitely happier in the mouth. YO says his bit is potentially too low so she’s letting me borrow a different bridle before I punch more holes in his current one

 

[Leo Walker]

The other livery is right, cobs in particular can take a long time to strengthen up and find their balance. It helps having them super fit and strong. Then its just a case of lots of transitions, saving long straight line canters for out hacking.

 

[Cortez]

Do you have an instructor? You need to get help with this pony, right away. Young/green horses and not-terribly-experienced riders is not a good idea and rarely ends well.

 

[Pippity]

At his age, I'd stick to long, straight canters out hacking rather than in the school. Let him build some muscle and balance before he has to deal with corners.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

The other livery is right, cobs in particular can take a long time to strengthen up and find their balance. It helps having them super fit and strong. Then its just a case of lots of transitions, saving long straight line canters for out hacking.

agree with both LW and Cortez-transitions and only a few strides of canter before bringing back to a good trot but I'd not be pushing the canter in the school at his age anyway.

 

[be positive]

You have only had a very short time so I would be working on his walk and trot, getting him more established and fitter with short canters out hacking for the next month or two before even thinking about cantering or jumping in the school, time spent going slowly now will be so worthwhile in the long run.

 

[J_sarahd]

Do you have an instructor? You need to get help with this pony, right away. Young/green horses and not-terribly-experienced riders is not a good idea and rarely ends well.

Yes. Like i said in the OP, I am having lessons soon. I just want to give him the best opportunity because I know he’s going to be a cracking pony. And I enjoy learning from people who are more experienced than me, whether that’s my instructor, other liveries or people on here. I just want more tools in my toolkit. And if there are exercises we can do in between lessons or alongside the exercises given by my instructor, I’d love to at least try them.

 

[J_sarahd]

You have only had a very short time so I would be working on his walk and trot, getting him more established and fitter with short canters out hacking for the next month or two before even thinking about cantering or jumping in the school, time spent going slowly now will be so worthwhile in the long run.

I think I just think we should be further along because his previous owner did occasionally jump and canter in the school. But yes, I’m willing to go slowly. I have just been mainly walking and trotting in the school to be fair.

 

[Lintel]

I'd definitely echoCortez.
It took my highland a long time to become "balanced" in canter.
He either refused to go forward or threw himself into some form disunited canter.
That being said he would be happy to come straight into a jump in canter.(which we shouldn't have been doing but I was young and dumb!)

So although his previous owner might have done more with him- it doesn't mean it was done correctly.

If I was you I'd definitely find a good instructor as they will be much more able to help you "In real life". In the meantime I would work on walk and trot in the school and getting them perfect, lots of transitions and changes of reins, circles - keep his mind busy.
If you can have some canters out hacking, I always felt it helped my boys momentum if he was out rather than in the school.

How about using some trotting poles too? Get him thinkng about picking his feet up too!
Good luck OP- it can be a bit of a long slog when they are young and unbalanced but it is so worth it seeing the improvement!

 

[Pearlsasinger]

I think I just think we should be further along because his previous owner did occasionally jump and canter in the school. But yes, I’m willing to go slowly. I have just been mainly walking and trotting in the school to be fair.

And you have seen the result of the previous owner's work - an unbalanced pony! As others have said, take it slowly, canter on uphill hacks, ask him to negotiate small logs, from trot - he might land and canter on, if you come across any. Work on walk trot and obedience in the school and his balance will improve gradually. Very often when an equine gets its tongue over the bit, it is because the bit is too low.

 

[J_sarahd]

I'd definitely echoCortez.
It took my highland a long time to become "balanced" in canter.
He either refused to go forward or threw himself into some form disunited canter.
That being said he would be happy to come straight into a jump in canter.(which we shouldn't have been doing but I was young and dumb!)

So although his previous owner might have done more with him- it doesn't mean it was done correctly.

If I was you I'd definitely find a good instructor as they will be much more able to help you "In real life". In the meantime I would work on walk and trot in the school and getting them perfect, lots of transitions and changes of reins, circles - keep his mind busy.
If you can have some canters out hacking, I always felt it helped my boys momentum if he was out rather than in the school.

How about using some trotting poles too? Get him thinkng about picking his feet up too!
Good luck OP- it can be a bit of a long slog when they are young and unbalanced but it is so worth it seeing the improvement!

Thank you so much for this! It is really helpful. I will, like most of you have said, forget about cantering in the school for now and just canter out on hacks.

 

[J_sarahd]

And you have seen the result of the previous owner's work - an unbalanced pony! As others have said, take it slowly, canter on uphill hacks, ask him to negotiate small logs, from trot - he might land and canter on, if you come across any. Work on walk trot and obedience in the school and his balance will improve gradually. Very often when an equine gets its tongue over the bit, it is because the bit is too low.

Very good point!! I think I just felt like I was doing him an injustice by not cantering, but I suppose it was actually the opposite.

Yeah, my YO is letting me borrow a bridle that will hopefully rise it in his mouth.

 

[blitznbobs]

Canter is very hard for a cob - my guy is very heavyweight but it took him a long time before he was balanced at canter - like 3 years ... his trot work is mega advanced compared to his canter cos he finds lateral work easy but the only thing that finally got him cantering in a rideable fashion was when he could do walk to canter... they need you to be stable in the centre of the saddle, able to sit down and have a strong enough core to give guidance with your hands to say when they throw their head up or down , ‘I expect you to be in this frame and that’s the way it is... now get on with it’ but to do this the horse has to understand what you mean by that so your trot work needs to be good... a canter that isn’t a good natural canter is hard to train but I would suggest

1) get a good instructor
2) get your trot perfect before you ask for canter in the school
3)leg yield a few steps before asking for canter to get inside hind underneath
4) once cantering think shoulder fore ALL THE TIME just a tiny bit this way you are riding the inside hind between the forelegs thus allowing the horse to lift his front end and achieve better balance.

Otherwise only canter when you can go in a long straight line.

 

[Denbob]

My beast is still quite immature in terms of his canter, as hacking is limited at the moment (he's also a twit) and his trot is pretty solid we're introducing lateral work and have just started working on canter transitions without actually doing any prolonged canter - no more than 5/6 strides of positive forward canter then forward into the canter/trot transition. Any more than that and he rushes and becomes flat, the quality of his trot improves as a result of the forward movement and we can do more effective work. Polework is also absolutely essential!

 

[J_sarahd]

Just an update - I did polework on Badger tonight with a girl on the yard who was an Inter 1 dressage rider (so much more experienced than I am) and he was quite forward. And after on pole, he popped into canter by himself and it was the best canter I’ve ridden on him (including the ones when I tried him) so I know it’s there. Just got to get him strong enough to do it when I ask!

 

[Pc2003]

Definitely canter out hacking initially, ideally up a slope and in a straight line. It’s the only way my young cob could canter! Don’t think we managed a nice 20m circle of canter until she was nearly 7 😂

 

[Leo Walker]

It doesnt matter what the old owners did. I worked really hard with my pony and then sent her away to the pros to finish being broken. They went right back to basics with her. They always do as you have to ensure the basics are properly in place before you move to the next step. It didnt matter that I had been doing x,y and z, they wanted to make sure she knew how to do a, b, c first. So if the pros take a step back there is no shame at all in you doing the same with a new young and green pony

 

[scats]

I fixed a dreadfully unbalanced Canter out hacking. Fortunately it was stubble season at the time so had plenty of space on our farm to do it. Straight lines- into canter for a short stretch, then few strides of trot, then back to canter. Eventually I could ask her for a large circle in the field. She struggled in the manège for a long time as she just couldn’t do corners (our manège isn’t huge) without practically falling on her face.
That was last summer and the horse isn’t far off doing canter piri’s now and has got one of the best collected canters I’ve ever sat on. It can be done!

 

[J_sarahd]

It doesnt matter what the old owners did. I worked really hard with my pony and then sent her away to the pros to finish being broken. They went right back to basics with her. They always do as you have to ensure the basics are properly in place before you move to the next step. It didnt matter that I had been doing x,y and z, they wanted to make sure she knew how to do a, b, c first. So if the pros take a step back there is no shame at all in you doing the same with a new young and green pony

This makes me feel a lot better, thank you.

 

[J_sarahd]

I fixed a dreadfully unbalanced Canter out hacking. Fortunately it was stubble season at the time so had plenty of space on our farm to do it. Straight lines- into canter for a short stretch, then few strides of trot, then back to canter. Eventually I could ask her for a large circle in the field. She struggled in the manège for a long time as she just couldn’t do corners (our manège isn’t huge) without practically falling on her face.
That was last summer and the horse isn’t far off doing canter piri’s now and has got one of the best collected canters I’ve ever sat on. It can be done!

Thank you so much. I’m lucky because the hacking around our yard is pretty good and I’m not actually terrified of hacking Badger out like I have been with previous horses I’ve loaned!