How were you taught to canter?

sandi_84

sandi_84

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This just popped into my head for some reason, was thinking about when I was watching some people ask for canter a while back and reading a thread later with something similar mentioned.

One person continued rising trot into canter which I know a few people do, and the other asked for canter down the long side of the school and had problems with striking off on the wrong leg.

I was taught to sit the trot and ask for canter on a corner as it helps strike off and balance.

What method were you taught?
 
I'm smiling to myself thinking about it.
Lovely lady who taught me to ride on her 14.2 pony Toby when I was 8, cost £5 an hour and spent 2 years just going out on the road on a lead rein.
When she taught me to canter.... "Laura, take Toby down the bottom of the field, turn round, keep your bum in the saddle, grab his mane and dont stop kicking till you get back to me, and dont fall off"

Toby was a diamond and did the most beautiful steady canter all the way up the field, with me hanging on for dear life to his mane, kicking like fury and bouncy around on his back, what a good Ponio.
 
Laura6544 said:
"Laura, take Toby down the bottom of the field, turn round, keep your bum in the saddle, grab his mane and dont stop kicking till you get back to me, and dont fall off"
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Ha ha! That's brilliant :D Points for teaching with style and bluntness there I think :D
 
If you ask when you are in rising trot you will naturally ask as you sit which will put your horse in the correct position for a leading inside leg (assuming you are on the correct diagonal of course). I think you only need to ask in the corner if you have a horse you are struggling to teach leads to. If you have a properly schooled horse you should be able to ask anywhere, from sitting or rising trot, walk or halt (or rein back).
I was taught to canter using my outside leg behind the girth. However my current instructor has told me this is wrong and I need to stop asking like that or I will not be able to get decent lead changes (my flying changes are horrible, can't get them without a pole on the ground) or canter HP. Instead you need to ask with your seat and if you need to reinforce it should be active inside calf on the girth and very passive outside leg behind the girth. What you want to avoid is pushing the quarters in because then you are unloading the inside hind and teaching a crookedness and evasion.
 
"Pick up the inside rein fractionally, inside leg on, outside leg just behind the girth and push with your seat" I heard that in my head as soon as I read the question.

That's how I was taught to do it some 40 odd years ago, if it is wrong then I've been doing it wrongly, and so have my horses, for a very long time :(

Nowadays I ask with my seat, and make a kissy sound (my horses are trained on the ground to canter, they canter at the cue regardless of any physical cues actually) legs in the same position but minimal contact, very un-BHS
 
hmm made me think a bit. I too was originally taught to ask (kick) with the outside leg behind the girth and hold with inside leg as well as push with the seat. (YUCK!!)

Now I have O/S slightly back but passive and 'step' into the inside stirrup and off we go, no matter where in the school we are.

However who ever taught my current horse was even more wonky than me because on the left rein he would not canter unless the right leg was REALLY way back behind the girth, I had to gradually bring it forward and not use it.

Too be honest I usually only have to alter my seat now and he goes (albeit a few months since I rode as he is injured :( )
 
this also made me smile when i was little it was all about putting reins into the outside hand inside hand on pommel and kick like a mad thing in the corner.

But the amount of people i see nowadays asking for canter from rising trot :mad::mad:
 
JustMe22 said:
Sit and kick when you get to the corner :)
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With the riding school ponies I was taught on, this was definately the style - and if they don't go, keep kicking, start chucking your whole body at them and then kick some more!

But since then i've found that some horses react differently to others. One horse I rode would only canter if you slid your outside leg right back. I then followed this with my own cob and thats how he canters. However with my tb he reacts better if you just think of the transition and ask with your seat - but i'm yet to get the hang of this and get out of the 'kick & chuck your whole body at them' way of thinking - even after 10 years :D
 
Initially it was more like Stay behind Thomas (older brother) and hold on ... My Shetland didn't have a saddle nor did we have a school so I learnt on the bridleways.
Later on I had lessons and learnt what to to ... Take sitting, inside leg on for impulsion, ouside leg back to keep the bum end steady, don't throw your reins away. Use corners if horse is a bit unsure or canter a little wishy washy (like on some cobby types) to help with correct strike off ;-)
 
My first canter was on a massive clydsedale, I was about 7! A friendly girl asked if I wanted a quick ride, of course! She thought I would just sit....I kicked him on and off we went! Was heaven....

:D
 
Im not actually sure what I do with my lot, I seem to just think it and they do it.... This is then very hard when mum says.... what did you do to get that.... Urm, not sure :o?
 
God a good few years ago now!! i was 2 1/2 when my non horsey parents bought me a pony of the same age!!! i dont remember much but the snippets of memory i had were.... we had a little menage about 100yards down the road and at the time the roads were busy i dont remember learning to ride just the days she would bolt back to the main yard, some times we got back ok, but other times she would shy and i would be on my back flailing around link a fish out of water winded!!! never had a lesson until i was 8yrs, went to a local riding school and they said after 1 lesson would i like to compete there pony for them!!! still think about that pony today and were did she end up!
 
This did make me grin, going to show my age now. I was not really taught my friend just slapped my pony on the bottom and off we went, with me hanging on for grim death things were so different then but we did have alot of fun :)
 
Well, I wasn't really taught to canter, the instructor basically said, watch X do it, then off you go (told me what to do ie how to give the aids and to do sitting trot) - no lunging first or anything, she was just like 'try it', so I did! This was at a riding school as well! Was always told to sit and give the aids in a corner, but my mare will canter on the long side and most of the time get the right leg too! Having my own horse has taught me so much more than the RS did!
 
Many years ago when I did attempt to learn to ride, I was taught to get to a corner & "sit, kick, canter"!

I could never do it, just kept getting b*******d of the old battleaxe. Soon packed in :(
 
Well my first few canters were not necessarily taught (first time wasn't really classed as my first canter but I got the feel for it :p when pony spooked and bolted off where I promptly fell off and broke my shoulder, second was on a own a pony day and being lead reined in canter and thirdly was getting to pony to trot but because he wasn't listening to my aids I gave him a whack with the whip and off he went) and to be honest when I actually began to canter properly I still was wasn't taught on how to get into canter but how to sit to it more than anything! But subconsciously I think I read so many books etc... above my level of experience (still do now! :cool:) that I put my outside leg behind the girth and asked for the bend (always have asked for canter in a corner) and kicked that I've never really had a problem getting into canter LOL!
 
When i was little i was taught inside leg on the girth outside leg just behind the girth and ask wih a squeeze (going into sitting trot and asking on a corner.)
TBH i don't even think about it now, i just do it :o:confused:
 
On my first ride at the "trekking centre" i did my work experiance. It was a case of you'll be at the back so wont have to do much, oh actually their going for a canter you'll just have to hang on!!

Thankfully the pony was a saint and put up with my bumping around (mainly did hacks for holiday makers)

Not really sure how i learnt to canter "properly" only ever had a handfull of lessons. With Jen i just sit and think canter and were off :D
 
The riding school I went to, sent you out on group hacks once you had mastered stop, steering and rising trot. Your first canter was up a hill, and of course all the ponies knew they would canter so just went off in a steady line, running out of puff at the top. Meant you learnt how to stay on being easier going uphill, as the ponies naturally slowed with the steepness and stopped at the top it meant you didn't race or get run away with out of control, and you learnt what the pace was like before trying it in the school.
 
I was 10 and at the riding school I was told to go into sitting trot down the long side; shorten the reins then sit down well and apply the outside leg behind the girth at the corner coming up. Sometimes it happened sometimes the horse [a piebald with one eye called Tiger] just trotted faster;the instructer shouted "persevere" and I didnt know what that ment! I just kept doing the same thing [hee-hee] and at the next corner she would sometimes go into canter or we would just do a fast horrid trot down the next long side;get it all together and try again.
 
First riding school.....On a hack, got told to sit and kick and stay.

Friends horse.....she spun him round on a tight circle with me on him, then sent him down the field with a smack on the arse yelling 'hold on and kick him!' [Rodeo session later...]

Second riding school....shocking, worked on the basics, walk and trot, sitting trot, lunge lessons, theory of canter aids [which I had no idea about] and then putting it into practice in a group lesson, coming out of the short side corner, sitting 4 strides, outside leg back, inside leg on the girth - hey presto, canter!

College in dressage was slightly more crude, words were 'sit deep, chest out and pretend your s******* the saddle!' Though I, at the time, was completely dumbfounded by that and it wasn't much help haha.


;)
 
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yep I was also taught to sit in the corner, one hand on the pommel and kick on! :D

it did then turn into "sitting trot into the corner and outside leg behind the girth"
 
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Anglebracket said:
:eek:

I really do hope you learned to canter as an adult. :D
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lmao, this was what I was told the second time I was cantering (17hh Cleveland Bay in 15 by 20 school!) except substitute George Clooney for Austin Healy my crush at the time!

First time was on a a lunge bareback on my friends ex-racer, needless to say I slip off into a heap after a couple of strides!

Still was a quick learner, was cantering my own bareback 6months later :)

I was sitting here thinking what is so wrong with asking from rising trot, then thought about it and realise that I sit for the last couple of strides when asking for canter and couldn't imagine asking in rising, or imagine my horse cantering either? I just shift my weight outside leg slightly back, small squeeze and off we go :)
 
Batgirl said:
lmao, this was what I was told the second time I was cantering (17hh Cleveland Bay in 15 by 20 school!) except substitute George Clooney for Austin Healy my crush at the time!
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hudsonw said:
Tee Hee...

I must admit i did learn to canter as a child (25 years ago!!) but i had a lesson a couple of years back and this is what my instructor yelled at the top of his voice so the whole yard heard!!!
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Well, if it improved your canter I am sure it was worth it.
 
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