Horse reluctant to canter?

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GreenEyedMonster

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My new horse struggles with canter work, her canter (upwards) transitions are not as forwards and willing as her walk to trot or halt to walk.
Then when she is in canter she takes tends to come behind the leg after a few strides and if I've asked her to go a whole lap of our large school and she struggles to maintain it she switches to the wrong leg.

She isn't lame, she has no other symptoms whatsoever and is very happy to work otherwise, no other reluctance, no bucking etc. and no angry ears etc.
So I wonder with her being quite green and unbalanced is it just that she physically struggles because she isn't strong enough?
Or is it her being lazy (because she can be a little... distracted!)
 
GreenEyedMonster said:
My new horse struggles with canter work, her canter (upwards) transitions are not as forwards and willing as her walk to trot or halt to walk.
Then when she is in canter she takes tends to come behind the leg after a few strides and if I've asked her to go a whole lap of our large school and she struggles to maintain it she switches to the wrong leg.

She isn't lame, she has no other symptoms whatsoever and is very happy to work otherwise, no other reluctance, no bucking etc. and no angry ears etc.
So I wonder with her being quite green and unbalanced is it just that she physically struggles because she isn't strong enough?
Or is it her being lazy (because she can be a little... distracted!)
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It is your job, or your trainers, to decide why she is struggling, it is very much part of training a horse to be able to work out why something proves difficult and help the horse overcome any issues they are having, without knowing the horse or rider no one can give a definitive answer to your questions other than to say it could be due to any number of things, being purely lazy is the least likely, being unbalanced will make cantering for long rather difficult, being green will mean she also finds the work hard, you need to work on improving her strength, fitness, balance and gradually build up how much you expect of her.

Check the saddle really is a good fit, just because she is not showing signs of discomfort in other paces does not mean everything is fine as they will often show very subtle signs which need to be checked out, don't keep going too long, do a transition before she gets in a muddle, aim for a few good strides then trot picking up canter again once she is rebalanced, do this several times until she is starting to carry herself more and you should find she can stay in a better canter for longer, these are the sort of exercises she needs to be doing rather than trying to just do a lap of a school which in itself serves little purpose with a green young horse.
 
be positive said:
do a transition before she gets in a muddle, aim for a few good strides then trot picking up canter again once she is rebalanced, do this several times until she is starting to carry herself more and you should find she can stay in a better canter for longer, these are the sort of exercises she needs to be doing rather than trying to just do a lap of a school which in itself serves little purpose with a green young horse.
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This!!!

Pending any soreness issues, if you stick with the above you'll find her much more willing to pop into a canter if they know that it's not going to be a long hard slog. Very much could just be a fitness thing.

I would also look at working through some cavaletti or similar, to get her happy to 'pop' up more to you. Also trotting into small fences and pushing the canter away.
Let us know your progress! :)
 
Following with interest. I will be doing a lot of the above with my young horse as he has come behind the leg since coming to me (very off the leg each of the three times I tried him before buying) - I think to a certain extent he may be backing off due to cautiousness in his new environment, so I'm focusing on lots of transitions and polework to keep him busy. It might be the same with your horse and you'll find as she gets more confident in you and relaxed in her new home she will be more willing to go forward - as long as you have established that leg on = go from the get go :)
 
You need her to be able to maintain canter without the constant use of your leg. Ideally you should ask for the gait you require and stay there until you ask for a change in pace.

Does she do this already in walk and trot or are you having to use leg to maintain impulsion?

If she doesn't maintain walk and trot on her own then I'd be working on that too.

For canter I would partially agree with the others that doing short bursts of canter will help but with some horses they anticipate the downward transition and get even more behind the leg in canter so another way you might try is to pick up canter and then use no leg. She will inevitably fall back to trot but then you immediately ask for canter again, repeat until she can maintain canter for a full circuit of the school without the need for your leg. This may work straight away, may take a few sessions
 
Ditto what BePositive has said.

Also, what is your position like in canter? My last mare had a habit of bucking/running into canter so with my new mare I had developed a defensive seat in canter meaning I was leaning forward (without knowing it) and because my balance was off my mare struggled to get into and maintain canter.

Alot of lessons helped with this.
 
My youngster used to struggle with canter. There were a number of things that weren't helping him. One was me, as another poster eluded to I was sitting very defensively meaning that I was putting all my weight onto his forehand and the poor boy was struggling. His balance was also very poor so I spent a long time with instructors getting his walk and trot nicely balanced before re-introducing the canter work. We found that lots and lots of transitions with halt, walk and trot really helped him get sharper off my leg.

When we did start cantering I would refrain from asking him to canter in our school as it's quite tight. I would take him out hacking and find a nice uphill stretch and ask very correctly for canter there. Not saying it will work for everyone, just worked for us.

We now how the opposite problem as he finds canter very easy now and sometimes that is all he wants to do!
 
You don't mention anything about the age or stage of training of the horse.
If the horse is young/green then it could be balance. What happens if you canter in a straight line out hacking? My current youngster found cantering in the school impossible when I backed her so I didn't canter at all in the school and just worked out hacking and then progressed to large circles in fields. After a month or so she could happily canter in the school.
 
she is rising 10 and is very green for her age, she has never competed as she was purchased a failed racehorse (having never raced as she was too slow and didn't enjoy it)
Since then she's been a bit of pet/spare part and was jumping small courses before having time off as her previous rider who was the groom fell off and was too injured to ride so I bought her!
 
I'd like to think my position is quite good, I ride very very light and soft as my other horse who I have owned for 5 years is exetremely hot to ride and very sharp.

she doesn't buck though! in fact she's a sweetheart!
 
AN UPDATE:

did some jumping this weekend and pole work asking her to canter in shorter bursts and to go more forwards which really seemed to help, particularly on Friday she was much more responsive to canter and really listened.

the Saturday and Sunday she was much better in terms of her rhythm and consistency but I think the heat and her inexperience (meaning she isn't as physically strong as most) made it a bit harder for her.

I think she's been lacking confidence in herself but a lot of praise has done her some good and she seems much more relaxed, so maybe the laziness (or reluctance) came from her being a bit nervous!

Pleased to say she is using her back much more now than she was initially so she just be getting stronger!
 
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