Help ... Cantering issue

tonitot

tonitot

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When I ask Ethel to canter, she feels like she's going really fast and goes round the corners too fast for my liking, I can feel her back legs going from underneath her and I get worried she's going to fall over. My friend watched us and said she looked lovley cantering, but I need to relax more. I try to relax but it makes little (if any) difference. I've found that if I stand up in my stirrups, she settles and slows down, takes more care around the corners and seems to be more balanced, so I think that when I try to sit to canter I grip with my legs and push her a lot with my seat. We used to be fine, its just started recently. She's ridden in a jointed eggbutt snaffle, although our brakes are a bit dodgy I'm pretty sure its me, not her, so I don't think a change of bit is needed. She wears a normal cavesson noseband and doesn't open her mouth or cross her jaw, so I think we're fine there too. When she gets tired I find it easier to control her when I sit in canter but to start we're just all over the place. Any tips??
 
Hello there :) She feels as though she goes fast and then gets to the corners and goes round them like a motorbike! She feels unbalanced too, but I don't really know what to try to get her to keep herself up around the corners, I've also found that I tend to lean to the side to just try and stay with her!
 
From google! :

Your green mare needs the same sort of slow, progressive work to teach her how to balance herself. Green horses are very prone to racing at the canter. Because they don't know how to balance themselves properly at reasonable speeds, they tend to rely on the effects of speed and centrifugal force to keep them from falling over around tight corners. This mare will find it easier to maintain a slower pace if you canter for only a few strides at a time down the straightaway. Avoid corners or circling at canter until she has learned to canter in a relaxed and balanced manner down straight lines.

Rapid transition work may be the most effective technique for getting this mare to slow down and maintain her balance. If you ask for 4 strides of walk followed by 4 of trot, 4 of canter, 3 of walk, 4 trot, 5 canter, 6 trot, 3 walk, halt, 5 trot, 4 canter, etc., etc., etc., the transitions will happen so quickly that she will force herself to stay attentive and balanced for your next request. Make sure you only make canter requests when she's traveling down a straight line. Try it. It works! But if the rapid transitions make her very hyper, frustrated, or scared, work on cantering for just a few strides at a time down a straight line without all the other transitions.

When she has started to slow down and balance her canter on straight lines, you can begin to incorporate bending lines. Try cantering through just one corner of the arena before asking her to return to walk. As she canters through the corner, make absolutely certain you are not shifting or leaning your weight even slightly to the inside. Keep your eyes straight forward to help keep your own body properly aligned over her spine. Even the slightest shift of your weight toward the inside of the bend will throw this mare's balance all out of whack and cause her to race through the corner. Pay attention to how this mare holds her body around corners. The more she leans to the inside, the faster she'll go. You can help hold her body upright around the corner (and make it easier for her to maintain a moderate pace) by holding your inside leg firmly against her side and gently supporting her inside shoulder with your inside indirect rein. Don't take a strong hold of her mouth to try to slow her down. It will likely only make matters worse and make her more resistent to your cues. Maintain a light, steady contact through the reins, and let her responses be your guide in any necessary rein adjustments."

Do with it what you will :D
 
Hi! Are you having regular lessons? Sounds as if there several issues to address with establishing bend, suppleness, rhythm and speed which will all get better using different schooling exercises. How does she feel in walk and trot? Are you able to ride her in a consistently good rhythm with correct bend on both reins? If not, I personally would be working on getting these basics established in slower paces before moving up to canter. What is your horse like out hacking? If she is well behaved and controllable, you could practise your canters in straight lines, keeping the canter steady and keeping off your horse's back. I would practise plenty of transitions too.
My horse is an ex racer who I am in the process of re-schooling. His walk and trot is now consistent in a good rhythm and outline but he isn't strong enough yet to carry me sitting down in canter so I am doing my canter with shorter stirrups off his back, still working him with correct bend and outline.

Best of luck with your neddy! x
 
kirstyl said:
Hi! Are you having regular lessons? Sounds as if there several issues to address with establishing bend, suppleness, rhythm and speed which will all get better using different schooling exercises. How does she feel in walk and trot? Are you able to ride her in a consistently good rhythm with correct bend on both reins? If not, I personally would be working on getting these basics established in slower paces before moving up to canter. What is your horse like out hacking? If she is well behaved and controllable, you could practise your canters in straight lines, keeping the canter steady and keeping off your horse's back. I would practise plenty of transitions too.
My horse is an ex racer who I am in the process of re-schooling. His walk and trot is now consistent in a good rhythm and outline but he isn't strong enough yet to carry me sitting down in canter so I am doing my canter with shorter stirrups off his back, still working him with correct bend and outline.

Best of luck with your neddy! x
Click to expand...

No we dont have lessons, I can't afford them atm but I'm going to start having them next year when I bring her back into work after she has the winter off. She is only 3 so I don't ride her that often, but I want to get her canter work going nicely before we stop. She is also an ex-racer, although she never raced but she was in training. Her walk and trot is lovely, to me anyway, but I've never re-schooled a horse and we have taken it slowly, haven't been cantering for very long.
 
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