How long until you cantered your youngsters?

J_sarahd

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I basically need some reassurance!

As some may know, i recently bought a very green 5 year old with an amazing attitude and he was come on so much. The trot has slowed down, he doesn’t charge at poles and he’s actually letting me get on him!

But I haven’t really cantered, due to him being unbalanced and completely rushing in the transition and in canter. (Even though he did canter with previous owners). I do feel we have a taken a step back since we have sorted out him getting his tongue over the bit as I’m not sure he’s ever really been ridden with a bit in properly, so we have some evasion!

But please can you give me some reassurance that I’m doing the right thing, by letting me know how long before you properly started canter work on your youngsters?
 

SEL

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Not in a school because she was so unbalanced but I did pop her behind a bombproof babysitter on a hack after a few months - once I knew brakes were understood.
 
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ihatework

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They would start canter work reasonably early - I’ve got a 3yo being backed at the moment and at 6 weeks he is about to start canter under saddle. Proper canter education won’t be until end of year as he will be turned back out soon.

Big one I’ve got knew how to canter, of a long/unbalanced/heffalump kind of way when he arrived 5-6 weeks after being sat on. A big proportion of his education since then had been learning to canter properly. He couldn’t hold a 20m circle for a good 4-5 months, so did all his canterwork either in a huge arena or in a straight line up gallops!
 

J_sarahd

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Not in a school because she was so unbalanced but I did pop her behind a bombproof babysitter on a hack after a few months - once I knew brakes were understood.

How long did it take her to be balanced enough to canter in the school? If she has! I know every pony is different, but I feel at 5, he should be cantering in the school. Maybe I’m just impatient!! He has cantered before - I have videos of him cantering and I cantered him when I tried him. So feeling a lil disheartened.
 

Cortez

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Depends on the horse, but I've often cantered horses on the first ride under saddle if they're reasonably balanced. If they're big heffalumps I'll wait until they are cantering well on the longe before asking.
 

Scarlett

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How long did it take her to be balanced enough to canter in the school? If she has! I know every pony is different, but I feel at 5, he should be cantering in the school. Maybe I’m just impatient!! He has cantered before - I have videos of him cantering and I cantered him when I tried him. So feeling a lil disheartened.

Doesn't matter if he's 5 if the basics aren't right. He should canter in the school when he is ready to canter in the school regardless of age. For some this is 3, for some this is 6. Totally depends on the horse and the skills of the person schooling them imo.

If you have cantered him before then why did you stop? He's going to be unbalanced and rushing in the transition/canter to start with and avoiding cantering wont magically help that. Do you canter him on the lunge?

Be sensible in your expectations, ie the canter wont be perfect straight away, and get good help. The canter will come.
 

ThreeWBs

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Took me a little while to canter mine. Went in for breaking end of July as a 4yo, came back to me in Aug. Did a lot of hacking in walk and trot. We had a few rides in the school and he did improve a lot, but was very unbalanced. Decided to bite the bullet and canter him October time and he was great (although weak on the left rein). He then went on his winter break from 1st Nov - 1st Feb. Just bringing him back in gently now, but already cantered on our first hack out together. He feels a lot stronger and more balanced. I'm trying to do a lot of groundwork with raised poles to get his hindend more engaged and supple.

I went through the disheartened feeling last year, but I've learned to just take it as it comes, don't compare yourself or your horse to other people.

Edit: for reference, he's a 16.1 WB with weak stifles
 

J_sarahd

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Doesn't matter if he's 5 if the basics aren't right. He should canter in the school when he is ready to canter in the school regardless of age. For some this is 3, for some this is 6. Totally depends on the horse and the skills of the person schooling them imo.

If you have cantered him before then why did you stop? He's going to be unbalanced and rushing in the transition/canter to start with and avoiding cantering wont magically help that. Do you canter him on the lunge?

Be sensible in your expectations, ie the canter wont be perfect straight away, and get good help. The canter will come.

That makes sense. I guess it’s like children and walking/speaking etc.

I cantered him when I tried him but when I bought him, my instructor said his trot needed a lot of work as he was rushing in that too. And now we have solved the tongue over the bit issue, which has set us a few paces back. So okay he did canter before, but I can guarantee his tongue was over the bit and it wasn’t exactly balanced. My instructor thinks he’s been pulled and kicked around, which is why he is very sensitive in his mouth.

I have 2 good instructors who have helped so much.
 

J_sarahd

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I went through the disheartened feeling last year, but I've learned to just take it as it comes, don't compare yourself or your horse to other people.

Thank you! This has made me feel better! I don’t want to rush him as I’m not planning on selling him anytime soon, but I’m also itching to get going.
 
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J_sarahd

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Depends on the horse, but I've often cantered horses on the first ride under saddle if they're reasonably balanced. If they're big heffalumps I'll wait until they are cantering well on the longe before asking.

I wish I could say he is a big heffalump! He’s a very short-strided (probably why his canter feels very fast) 13.3hh!
 

paddi22

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i usually canter any ones with a bad canter on hacks before a school. if you find a gentle hill its great for helping them build the muscle behind and learn to 'sit' a bit more.
 
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splashgirl45

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i didnt have an arena so had to canter mine out hacking. i always chose a hill to canter at first because she bucked on the flat to start with, once we had mastered cantering in balance up a hill the flat was no problem and she found her balance easily so when i hired an arena i had no problems. i think lots of hacking over all sorts of terrain is the best for sorting out balance...
 

sportsmansB

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If you do lunge him and you can get him obedient to your voice on the lunge, it makes it easier under saddle and can be a bit less explosive / faster and faster trot...
Use the exact same 'Can-ter' voice, can be done on hacks too. Also helps to have a good 'stea-dy' and 'wh-oa' on the voice just in case you need it once you get going!
 

ihatework

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Thank you! This has made me feel better! I don’t want to rush him as I’m not planning on selling him anytime soon, but I’m also itching to get going.

I do think it’s possible to keep putting it off because ‘they aren’t ready’ or it just feels all too difficult.

Thing is they aren’t going to learn to canter unless they, well, canter!

By all means set them up to succeed by doing it behind another horse out hacking to start with, but avoiding it isn’t akways the way to go.
 

J_sarahd

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i didnt have an arena so had to canter mine out hacking. i always chose a hill to canter at first because she bucked on the flat to start with, once we had mastered cantering in balance up a hill the flat was no problem and she found her balance easily so when i hired an arena i had no problems. i think lots of hacking over all sorts of terrain is the best for sorting out balance...

I’ve definitely heard that before! I’ve just found it quite difficult to get out because of the weather and struggling to find the right babysitter to go with!
 

Asha

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My latest mare was cantered the first time she was sat on. I was a bit :eek::eek::eek:. But she was older (7), and very chilled out about it all. She came back from the backers, and was walked an trotted around the yard for 2 days, then 3rd day in the arena and had a little canter. Its about making sure its all very easy and relaxed and no drama. When my orange beasty mare was backed she was cantered after a couple of days. With my ID mare that I ride, I had a pro rider do it first after a couple of days, then I took over. Key thing is to do it relaxed and when you are both ready, so its a natural progression. I found my mare easy to do, because she understood the word' canter' , so all I had to do was sit quiet and whisper annnnd canter just like I do when lunging. After the initial cantering in the arena we move to cantering on hack behind a good horse with breaks, and if the horse is feeling a little fresh we ask going uphill.
 

J_sarahd

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I do think it’s possible to keep putting it off because ‘they aren’t ready’ or it just feels all too difficult.

Thing is they aren’t going to learn to canter unless they, well, canter!

By all means set them up to succeed by doing it behind another horse out hacking to start with, but avoiding it isn’t akways the way to go.

This is a very good point! Thank you
 

Cortez

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I do think it’s possible to keep putting it off because ‘they aren’t ready’ or it just feels all too difficult.

Thing is they aren’t going to learn to canter unless they, well, canter!

By all means set them up to succeed by doing it behind another horse out hacking to start with, but avoiding it isn’t akways the way to go.

Yes, this^^^ I like to let the canter just happen, but if it's not then needs must ask. The thing that isn't useful is to let the horse get faster and faster until it falls into a disorganised, frantic scrabble: that's not going to help any horse learn to balance.
 

J_sarahd

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If you do lunge him and you can get him obedient to your voice on the lunge, it makes it easier under saddle and can be a bit less explosive / faster and faster trot...
Use the exact same 'Can-ter' voice, can be done on hacks too. Also helps to have a good 'stea-dy' and 'wh-oa' on the voice just in case you need it once you get going!

He’s only been lunged twice before. So I’m going to start slowly introducing lunging with the help of one of my instructors. And introduce verbal commands
 

Leo Walker

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A bit different as mine is a driving pony, but she went away for 5 weeks and in that time she cantered once by accident. The basics were established enough that we took her out competing and she was a super star. But proper canter work will wait until she is fitter and stronger. And shes another 5yr old pony type so reasonably balanced.

Don't worry what other people are doing. You know he can canter, you know you can canter him, so carry on. Improve the quality of his work and build his strength up and start adding the odd canter in out hacking and build up from there.
 

ThreeWBs

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I think lunging with voice commands would be the best idea. My youngster is great with verbal commands. He also gets big 'good boy' when I'm riding him, he absolutely loves praise and it really helps his confidence in new situations.
 

J_sarahd

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A bit different as mine is a driving pony, but she went away for 5 weeks and in that time she cantered once by accident. The basics were established enough that we took her out competing and she was a super star. But proper canter work will wait until she is fitter and stronger. And shes another 5yr old pony type so reasonably balanced.

Don't worry what other people are doing. You know he can canter, you know you can canter him, so carry on. Improve the quality of his work and build his strength up and start adding the odd canter in out hacking and build up from there.

Thank you! I swear your replies to my posts always make me feel better haha!
 

J_sarahd

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I think lunging with voice commands would be the best idea. My youngster is great with verbal commands. He also gets big 'good boy' when I'm riding him, he absolutely loves praise and it really helps his confidence in new situations.

Oh yeah badger loves praise and it really helps him. He’s not been taught verbal commands yet, due to not being lunged a great deal.
 

JFTDWS

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Generally I canter mine fairly early on - within a few sessions, usually - but not normally in an arena. If I had one big and gangly I might leave it till later, or, more likely, pick a bigger area for a nice straight canter. I think it's worth getting the idea in place, even if you don't push it much in their early education.
 

The Trooper

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I just gave it a bash when Bonnie was ready. As long as she understood what my stop aids meant and stopped/slowed down etc when asked I was quite confident. Infact, I broke Bonnie whilst teaching my Dad to ride (At the ripe old age of 51!).

As Bonnie was learning to walk, so was he on his cob Trojan. As Bonnie was learning to trot so was he and Trojan and so on and so forth.

Dad's like me, no fear. He just got on with it when out and about Nannying me and Bonnie.

No arena was used for either Bonnie or my Dad, it was all done out hacking.
 

J_sarahd

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I just gave it a bash when Bonnie was ready. As long as she understood what my stop aids meant and stopped/slowed down etc when asked I was quite confident. Infact, I broke Bonnie whilst teaching my Dad to ride (At the ripe old age of 51!).

As Bonnie was learning to walk, so was he on his cob Trojan. As Bonnie was learning to trot so was he and Trojan and so on and so forth.

Dad's like me, no fear. He just got on with it when out and about Nannying me and Bonnie.

No arena was used for either Bonnie or my Dad, it was all done out hacking.

Ah I wish I had no fear! I tend to overthink things and get myself worrying about stuff, even though technically I am very capable.

Perhaps I need to just go for more hacks on him. I just get a bit nervous out hacking due to past experiences
 

SEL

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How long did it take her to be balanced enough to canter in the school? If she has! I know every pony is different, but I feel at 5, he should be cantering in the school. Maybe I’m just impatient!! He has cantered before - I have videos of him cantering and I cantered him when I tried him. So feeling a lil disheartened.

Quite a while actually because our school at the time was tiny & she's a lump!. She was schooling in canter in the field & lunging in canter to voice command in the arena first.

One night I just dedicated a session to getting her to canter in the arena. Wasn't pretty!
 

Rosiejazzandpia

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I cantered my four year old on her 3rd hack out. We don't have a school so once I knew we had breaks she cantered behind a steady babysitter up a nice hill. They're very unbalanced at first, just let the canter happen. They won't be able to canter for long usually due to balance and fitness so we've practised up hills and had our first flat canter last week.
My mare hasn't seen a school yet and all her schooling will be done in the field in spring and summer. Don't overthink things, just let it happen out on a hack as long as you know you can stop :)
 

TGM

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When we backed our current youngster he did two weeks in walk and trot at the end of his third summer then was turned away for the winter. The following spring my daughter rebacked him and pretty much introduced canter in the school straightaway. But he naturally has a very balanced canter and found it incredibly easy and was able to negotiate a 20m circle first time cantering under saddle. I think it helped as well that he had learnt and become very obedient to a verbal canter command on the lunge. By contrast, a pony I had professionally backed a few years ago really struggled with the canter and found it very hard. They are all different!
 

Dave's Mam

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I have literally only started canter work with Dave. He is 7 in May. I have been taking things slowly with him across the board & it's all slowly paying off. He did struggle at first, as did I, but it's coming together.
 
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