Help! How can i sit better to.my youngsters massive canter ?!?!

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isabellexrupert

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So my youngster ( 3 yrs old ) has just been broken in and we are now messing about in the school just teaching him balance and bending properly. However i cannot sit to his canter for the life of me! I tense up which brings my knees up which unbalances me even mire so in the end im trying to stay on rather than just balance him! Hes 16 hh and im only uses to my 14 hh ponies canter. Anything to help? My instructor has taught me some excercises to do which i will do everytime i ride now.
Thank you xx
 
we are now breeding some mahoosive horses . The Irish draught is a cart horse TBH.The action is very extravagant at canter and hard to sit to (impossible to sit to). Bob the notacob is ,to be quite honest ,the opposite of what was intended in an ISH . Not for him the refining TB influence with the solid ID common sense. What I got was a cart horse with the brain of a grade 3 TB racehorse. Sit to canter ,My ++++ . Cant be done. Only time I can sit his canter is into a showjump when the back end goes down ready to leap,Edited to add ,dont even try. Its better to ride well with a 2 point seat than badly on your ++se
 
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To be fair... why would you sit a canter on a 3yo? Two unbalanced bodies one on top of the other won't make a pretty picture. I would carry on in a 3 point seat until you're both better balanced in that gait. It's a big horse too...

I used to practice canter out on hacks mainly with my 3yo and when I was riding bigger horses (in my reckless yoof) I don't think I sat to a canter very well either.

Now I'm middle aged, I'm much wiser and only ride up to 15.2hh. Makes life a lot easier :D
 
tallyho! said:
To be fair... why would you sit a canter on a 3yo? Two unbalanced bodies one on top of the other won't make a pretty picture. I would carry on in a 3 point seat until you're both better balanced in that gait. It's a big horse too...

I used to practice canter out on hacks mainly with my 3yo and when I was riding bigger horses (in my reckless yoof) I don't think I sat to a canter very well either.

Now I'm middle aged, I'm much wiser and only ride up to 15.2hh. Makes life a lot easier :D
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I never sit to a young horses canter until they are relatively balanced, in fact we rarely canter for very long as it can take ages before they are balanced enough to manage more than short bursts, with you struggling to sit and the horse struggling to balance is a recipe for a horse with a tight back, most 3 year olds would be best kept to walk and trot if they are being schooled and canter left until they feel ready, what is the rush when you have years ahead of you, even if you want to be out competing early next year they still have loads of time to become established enough.
 
be positive said:
I never sit to a young horses canter until they are relatively balanced, in fact we rarely canter for very long as it can take ages before they are balanced enough to manage more than short bursts, with you struggling to sit and the horse struggling to balance is a recipe for a horse with a tight back, most 3 year olds would be best kept to walk and trot if they are being schooled and canter left until they feel ready, what is the rush when you have years ahead of you, even if you want to be out competing early next year they still have loads of time to become established enough.
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Eloquently put BP... Couldn't have said it better.
 
my youngster was 4 in May and is only just starting being backed now. He's a pure Irish Draught and almost 16.2.... he's hardly been lunged at all and as I haven't got an arena and don't think going round and round in circles is good for any horse. He is however, long reigned in the field and around the village. He has only been ridden in walk. You need to take your time with big youngsters and let them grow and work out their own balance.... his breeder told me that the longer you take in the beginning, the more time you'll have later....
 
Agree with the others, not sure why you are trying to sit a 3yro canter.
Bum out of the saddle and shoulders back until you have more balanced gait under you.
 
O M G he`s only three years old!!

the reason you can`t sit to the canter is because his back is not yet ready, its not got longitudinal suppleness, he is strung out can`t step under the body mass, so he bumps you up out of the saddle, its a sign he is uncomfortable too, and its perfectly possible to sit lightly and let him come through under the saddle.

cantering out hacking will help him come to terms with cantering under a rider while going straight so he can learn to deal with one thing at a time and come through his unbalanced moments.

i doubt he has a BIG canter its just full of baby lumps! a big canter comes later, rising out of the withers and bounding forward, and anyway its only what most babies go though, and riders.
 
Stop trying to sit to his canter, shorten your stirrups and get up off his back and only canter him out hacking on straight lines, he is trying hard to balance himself without having to cope with you trying to sit on him as well, even better would be that now you have backed him turn him away for the rest of the year and start him again next year when it is more likely that he will be ready for you.
 
My yard mates 5yo (potential SJ/event) mare is not cantered unless its in a straight line, or she does it herself after a jump. Shes grown an inch over the summer and is now at 17hh but rather than push it the rider is letting her grow, find her feet and learn her own balance.
 
Just go light seat? I vary it on Nova and he's only been broken about a month now.

There's no rush with them... I doubt he will be ready for 4yo next year and I have no inclination to 'make' him ready :)
 
replying to everyone here. he is a very balanced horse and we only do one lap of canter on each rein of the school and i have a very experienced lady who backed him and is now giving us lessons. i do know what im doing as have ridden horses all my life. im not asking on opinions to why im cantering but asking for exercises to help. i currently ride with no stirrups on my other horses which opens up my hips to enable me to "sit" to my youngsters canter. he has not been broken too young but his brain needed motivating and working otherwise he wouldve become naughty and picked up horrible habbits. hence why he was broken a year/ 6 months earlier. i am not rushing him and have many other experienced people around advising us, he is more than capable to go out a few times a week to stimulate his brain. dont judge us without seeing what type of horse he is and what type of rider i am, thank you.
 
I find it easier to practice canter out hacking a long winding path is perfect sit right back and half halt until you get it collected. You just run out of room in a school and are into a bend too early. Not gripping with your legs as you mention is very important
 
GTRJazz said:
I find it easier to practice canter out hacking a long winding path is perfect sit right back and half halt until you get it collected. You just run out of room in a school and are into a bend too early. Not gripping with your legs as you mention is very important
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yes its the turns in the school that just arnt practical and his stride just covers the ground so quick that there just isnt enough space, however he is very balanced on the lunge, its unbelievable!he knows how balanced he is so he knows he`s not going to fall flat on face if he chooses to have an explosion! lol. i find its not sitting to his canter its stopping myself from gripping with my knees as im always thinking hes gonna have one of his explosions.
 
isabellexrupert said:
replying to everyone here. he is a very balanced horse and we only do one lap of canter on each rein of the school and i have a very experienced lady who backed him and is now giving us lessons. i do know what im doing as have ridden horses all my life. im not asking on opinions to why im cantering but asking for exercises to help. i currently ride with no stirrups on my other horses which opens up my hips to enable me to "sit" to my youngsters canter. he has not been broken too young but his brain needed motivating and working otherwise he wouldve become naughty and picked up horrible habbits. hence why he was broken a year/ 6 months earlier. i am not rushing him and have many other experienced people around advising us, he is more than capable to go out a few times a week to stimulate his brain. dont judge us without seeing what type of horse he is and what type of rider i am, thank you.
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Why bother asking for help if you're going to come back with a stroppy answer? You've had some excellent advice about what you should be doing with a just backed 3 yr old, and you've not listened to any of it. There are no exercises that can help you while your youngster is not yet strong and balanced enough to carry an unbalanced rider - that's why no-one gave you any. If the people around you aren't telling you exactly what you have been told on this post, they are not as experienced as you think they are.
 
Re explosions my ID gets very full of himself when on Spring like grass as we have just had in the south east, even in the Winter shut in 24/7 on last years soaked hay he is a easier chap to work with.
 
Dunno if it's any help but I have a horse with a big canter, when he's tight in his back and not properly "through" he's very difficult to sit to, however, he is an older established horse with the correct muscles and balance to work correctly and when he does, he still has a big canter but I can sit on it. The more weight he takes behind the easier it becomes. TBH I'd focus on working him appropriately for his age and I think the rest will come.
 
Auslander said:
There are no exercises that can help you while your youngster is not yet strong and balanced enough to carry an unbalanced rider.
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^^ Agree

I have a 4yr old - bought her as a 3yr old (my first youngster) and I expected miracles from her straight away. Now I look back and could almost laugh about my expectations. I have learnt so much in the first year, I did quite a bit of schooling at the beginning of the year, but she is too unbalanced, I got frustrated that she couldn't circle well and that she tripped often - I honestly thought she had something wrong with her.

I took her back to basics and do a session of groundwork once a week and we hack around 3 times a week to build her strength. In the year I have had her I have cantered TWICE (aside from the occasional few steps she throws in her self to catch up with her friends) We only canter on the straight and not for very long. I am in no rush with her and it suits us both. Before I got her I would have said I was a good, competent rider. I have been riding all my life so I am a good rider, right? Totally not, I have a lot to learn.

Even though you probably don't want to, OP, it would probably benefit you both to take a step back, let him grow up. Still school, but walk, trot, halt transitions and lots of circles, figures of eight and serpentines to balance him. The transitions and the figures will still keep him motivated and his mind engaged even more so than cantering him.
 
Auslander said:
Why bother asking for help if you're going to come back with a stroppy answer? You've had some excellent advice about what you should be doing with a just backed 3 yr old, and you've not listened to any of it. There are no exercises that can help you while your youngster is not yet strong and balanced enough to carry an unbalanced rider - that's why no-one gave you any. If the people around you aren't telling you exactly what you have been told on this post, they are not as experienced as you think they are.
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Glad I wasn't the only one miffed by the response!
 
isabellexrupert said:
i am not rushing him and have many other experienced people around advising us,
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Surely then it would make sense to ask all those experienced people helping you for their advice on your problem, rather than a bunch of strangers on the internet who don't know you or your horse!
 
take no notice, lots of people read whats on here, me for example i might post but i want to hear others ways methods thoughts.....
 
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