How to get more speed in canter?

J

Jingleballs

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Casper is an energy efficient pony and will not put any unnecessary effort into anything he does – that’s just the way he is!

He is however a little, muscular powerhouse who’ll give you a cracking dressage test but trying to get a nice forward canter or gallop out of him is difficult because he's just so laid back!

We’ve been working on getting more power in the canter for SJ and are slowly making progress but for XC I’m finding it difficult to get him to go up a gear!

Now he is perfectly capable of it – in fact yesterday we have a lovely fast, powerful canter through the forest but only because he had another horse in front of him!

So, does anyone have any ideas how I can get a similar canter when we are out on our own? He is generally oblivious to whips/spurs etc so giving him a smack will make no difference!

Any ideas are welcome!
 
My chap gets a bit confused as to why he should gallop more than a few strides.

I find that galloping in the direction of home around horsey tea-time makes him go for it :D

(Would NEVER do that with OH's TB/WB mare :eek:)
 
Yes he's always better when he's homeward bound lol!

At least I know he can gallop - it's just trying to get him to do it when asked that's the problem!
 
can you go xc with a lead? If you do pairs or hire a course for a bit of practise? If you can maybe use a particular aid when he is going really forwards when he is following someone, then you can train him to respond to this aid for a forward canter when you are working him on his own?
 
glosgirl said:
can you go xc with a lead? If you do pairs or hire a course for a bit of practise? If you can maybe use a particular aid when he is going really forwards when he is following someone, then you can train him to respond to this aid for a forward canter when you are working him on his own?
Click to expand...

Thanks - I was thinking that if I continued to hack him out with another horse that may help - my friend who was with us yesterday seems happy to do this so hopefully we can gain some momentum from that! :D
 
sounds fab! Particularly easy if you can associate a voice cue with it like you would if you were lunging.
 
i findd my pony canters a lot faster when hes behind an ex-racer or any bigger horse with longer legs for that matter or if he thinks hes being left behind he will turn on his turbo chrarge :P
 
More than happy hun if you want to blast him up and down the beach as well!!

We are all due a beach ride and i am sure Kia will act as a lead if you want :)

Nikki xxx :D
 
I've tried using a horse galloping off in front of me to mobilise my stick-in-the-mud saint of a pony. She just down-sticks even more, as if to say, if you think I'm doing that, you can think again pal! I just take solace in the fact that I've found that rare gem of a horse who you could trust your granny with!
 
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