Helping novice to canter on my bouncy ex trotter?

[kellybee]

A friend, who recently lost her job asked if her daughter could help me with my horses as she can't afford lessons at the moment. It turns out she's a great kid, a competent novice and she's been riding my standie (ex trotter) for a month or so now. It's nice to have company and having been in her shoes many moons ago I'm more than happy for her to ride in exchange for poo-picking and help with the ponies on show day.

She can trot even when he starts to stretch out, has good balance and rides him on the bit etc but when it comes to sitting to ask for canter we encounter problems. I'm no riding instructor, but I'm struggling to help her sit up straight when asking. Because he's SUPER bouncy, she tends to lean forward which in turn makes him trot faster. Anyone have any suggestions as to how I can help her? She rides my other fine, but I think the fact he's hard to sit to is what's putting her out of sync and instinctively she leans forward. I've tried one hand on the pommel, crossed stirrups etc but she is really struggling to put her shoulders back and sit up. I struggled at first with his bounce too, but being more experienced I guess it was a lot easier for me to adapt. He understands outside leg back = canter, and responds well to the leg. Any suggestions welcome!

 

[wren123]

What about walk to canter transitions, once she gets used to his canter and getting the transition correctly, then going back to asking for trot?

 

[kellybee]

Good idea! Thanks! Never thought of that! He has a nice canter, (trotter by nature so his canter stride is short and not remotely bouncy).

 

[TrasaM]

I've only one across this method once but when I had a lesson with a French instructor last year she told me to stay in rising trot until I felt the canter stride. It by passes all the sit bump bump situation. By the time I was introduced to this method I'd got the hang of the sit and ask but it did seem sensible and would have prevented me being in the same situation as your friend when I was getting the hang of trot canter transitions.

 

[tallyho!]

Lunge lessons. No stirrups. No reins. She must learn that gripping ends in a fall, relaxing keeps you in the saddle and she will find that her seat is made up of two halves.

 

[shampain]

As the above. Riding without the support of stirrups and reins will encourage her to engage her core and back muscles, and help her to 'plug in' to the movement of the horse more.