How much can the canter be improved and how to do it.

[BBP]

As above really. How much can a weak canter be improved? Any before and after photos to show a weak to powerful canter?

The bonkers black pony has a pretty weak canter, always has done til I finally had the weak SI diagnosed, and lacks push from behind, he moves quite straight through his hind legs. We live in a very flat area so not many hills to improve him, although I have found a place I can hire with a nice hill to work up. Saddle/health is all meticulously checked and first lesson since sacroiliac injury 2.5yrs ago is in the pipeline so really just looking for your thoughts and experiences to give me some food for thought.

Thanks!

 

[milliepops]

Assuming he's ok for schoolwork which I think it sounds like he is.. . I personally think you can improve a canter quite a lot. I enjoy teaching horses to canter well more than improving the trot actually

Same old stuff really.. balance, straightness, suppleness,
Good transitions, hundreds of transitions! half halts. Riding squares. On & back. Some find pole work or jumping helpful, and your other work done in other paces and outside of the school will all help too. Though eventually to improve the canter you need to work IN canter

I really like lateral work for helping them learn to use their bodies differently too so do a lot of shoulder fore/shoulder in in the canter, to engage and straighten the horse. I would be adding travers when the horse us straight and secure in the outside rein, I find that to do it well they have to start to sit and wait a bit.

Kira had a big unbalanced wall-of-death canter when first rebacked
[video=youtube_share;futSBh9TSr4]https://youtu.be/futSBh9TSr4[/video]

Now able to really sit, we're working on tempis and piris at the moment. This is some development work towards that that we were doing in April. I don't have any more recent video but you can see how it's progressing.
[video=youtube_share;G4B2YCgtoCk]https://youtu.be/G4B2YCgtoCk[/video]

Don't underestimate the power of good repetition of simple exercises for building strength and athleticism... simple trot-canter-trot-canter transitions will go a long way...

 

[BarbieHorse]

Pole work, especially over raised poles should help get more lift in the canter. And lots of walk-canter and canter-walk transitions to get his hind end under him. Rein back is also very useful for strengthening the back end and getting them to sit more behind

 

[BBP]

Kira looks great! Thanks both. I've never worked the canter too hard as I always felt he had an issue but now he feels on great form and ready for me to progress his training.

 

[DiNozzo]

If you have any nice long tracks, go hacking and think every third tree/5th fence post etc. I'm going to do a transition, whether its walk to halt, working trot to medium, canter to walk, do it.

I find doing transitions on a hack less horribly boring, and helps keep him (he can be a nappy little ***t!) forwards thinking and its less boring (for me!).

We hack along a popular walk in the north east, and there's often people passing so nowhere to have a proper blast really, so it was useful being able to execute a balanced medium canter to walk transition when some cyclists pop out of some trees!

 

[mudmonkey17]

I had found counter canter has worked wonders for the pony I ride. That and lots and lots of transitions as others have said x

 

[Embo]

Assuming he's ok for schoolwork which I think it sounds like he is.. . I personally think you can improve a canter quite a lot. I enjoy teaching horses to canter well more than improving the trot actually

Same old stuff really.. balance, straightness, suppleness,
Good transitions, hundreds of transitions! half halts. Riding squares. On & back. Some find pole work or jumping helpful, and your other work done in other paces and outside of the school will all help too. Though eventually to improve the canter you need to work IN canter

I really like lateral work for helping them learn to use their bodies differently too so do a lot of shoulder fore/shoulder in in the canter, to engage and straighten the horse. I would be adding travers when the horse us straight and secure in the outside rein, I find that to do it well they have to start to sit and wait a bit.

Kira had a big unbalanced wall-of-death canter when first rebacked
[video=youtube_share;futSBh9TSr4]https://youtu.be/futSBh9TSr4[/video]

Now able to really sit, we're working on tempis and piris at the moment. This is some development work towards that that we were doing in April. I don't have any more recent video but you can see how it's progressing.
[video=youtube_share;G4B2YCgtoCk]https://youtu.be/G4B2YCgtoCk[/video]

Don't underestimate the power of good repetition of simple exercises for building strength and athleticism... simple trot-canter-trot-canter transitions will go a long way...

I love her! She's so cool

Agree with advice on transitions, between and within paces is good. And adding lateral work to get the horse to use itself differently. Also, don't forget to actually work the canter! This was a turning point for me, I thought I was doing enough but as it turns out, I wasn't doing nearly enough to show an improvement (and wondered why we weren't getting anywhere...). So my suggestion is also to increase the amount of canter in your sessions (carefully and gradually, of course). Keep it simple at first, then begin to add everything else.