Improving balance in canter

[Casey76]

Fingers firmly crossed: Tartine is feeling brilliant at the moment, she is working really well, and is - at last - starting to regain some fitness.

We are really concentrating on canter work at the moment, which has been great for the said fitness, but it also makes her hot hot hot which is really testing my nerves and confidence (in a good way!)

Anyway, we can now do two speeds in canter - fast and very fast, but steering anything other than very large circles is an issue.

Yesterday we worked a little on spiraling in and out, which felt a lot like doing an ever decreasing wall of death at a 45 degree angle.

Counter canter is even worse! We're introducing it (again) by doing large figure 8's with no change. I can't for the life of me remember which rein is worse, but we can barely steer round in a 60x40 school.

Walk-canter is getting much better (but makes her *really* hot and anticipatory), as is canter-walk-rein back-canter; and I'm eventually getting it that I need to sit back and wait for the transition, rather than hunching forward anticipating.

Photo of a more slimline Tartine from last week...

 

[milliepops]

She looks well in a good way

Are you looking for tips or ideas? I personally think I'd leave the counter canter until true canter feels balanced and adjustable - it can be a very useful exercise for suppleness and balance but you need to start from a point of reasonable quality in the pace to really feel the benefits IMO. riding shallow loops might be more achieveable esp as you have a long arena?

As you've done lots of lateral work with her, I think I'd be trying to develop the shoudler-fore position in canter because that can really help to show them how to shift their balance back off the front end and start to engage behind. You have to go through a period of pretty agricultural riding IME because they find it very hard in the beginning, but as she is keen you are at a bit of an advantage to those horses who need shoving along to maintain momentum

Basic trot-canter-trot-canter transitions can also do excellent work to improve their balance but usually with less tension than walk-canter-walk . Just a few thoughts Glad to hear she's enjoying her work.

 

[scats]

Glad she's feeling well and enjoying her work. Canter with the Diva was always difficult as she eats up the ground but had a tendency to fall onto the forehand and then onto her left shoulder. The spiralling situation you describe sounds similar to what I had at the start, so I can suggest a few things that worked for us.

I always think this a fine line between letting them run on a bit and find their own balance (which essentially they need to do) but also not allowing them to think that that's the way the canter goes.
A great exercise I found was to trot a 20 m circle at A or C and pick up the canter over X, canter the corners on the short side and then forwards to trot to rebalance, go large down the long side and ride a 10 m circle at E or B, depending on the side you're on, then ask for canter in the next corner and canter the two corners before rebalancing in trot again.

For the spiralling exercise, I would canter until you feel the balance starting to really shift onto the forehand or the shoulder, then rebalance in trot before asking for the transition again. This really sits them back but doesn't allow them to bowl on and start motor biking the circle. Another good one, as MP suggests, is a slight shoulder fore in canter. Shoulder core during the transition is also useful to get them off the inside shoulder, you can then always straighten up in the canter if you wish.

 

[SpringArising]

I’m so familiar with that wall of death stage of them finding their feet. To be honest I never do anything special; it’s just a case of them figuring it out and improving little by little with repetition and practice.

Like MP said, I’d forget the counter canter for now and focus on improving canter on the ‘right’ legs first. When teaching a young or green horse I like things to be as black and white as possible, and striking off and staying on the right leg is difficult enough at times without confusing things by trying counter canter too.

In terms of actual exercises, you could lay out some canter poles - I find they are really great for making them slow down a little bit and getting them to think about their feet.

Other than that, I do as little as possible in the saddle. During the 100mph canter phase, I like to leave them to it on a fairly slack rein (especially helpful with this one as he panics and takes off if you tense or hold him back) and really just exaggerate looking round the turn (our steering is still a work in progress!)

 

[Casey76]

She looks well in a good way

Are you looking for tips or ideas? I personally think I'd leave the counter canter until true canter feels balanced and adjustable - it can be a very useful exercise for suppleness and balance but you need to start from a point of reasonable quality in the pace to really feel the benefits IMO. riding shallow loops might be more achieveable esp as you have a long arena?

As you've done lots of lateral work with her, I think I'd be trying to develop the shoudler-fore position in canter because that can really help to show them how to shift their balance back off the front end and start to engage behind. You have to go through a period of pretty agricultural riding IME because they find it very hard in the beginning, but as she is keen you are at a bit of an advantage to those horses who need shoving along to maintain momentum

Basic trot-canter-trot-canter transitions can also do excellent work to improve their balance but usually with less tension than walk-canter-walk . Just a few thoughts Glad to hear she's enjoying her work.

Thanks MP. Any tips or ideas are very welcome!

Considering how supple she is in walk and trot, in canter she really is very stiff; it's as if she is 3 years behind in canter than her trot work. I suppose it could actually be that as she's struggled so much to engage her HQ in canter for so long.

I've done SI to canter before (anything to encourage the correct leg strike off!) and I know I've tried canter SF before, but that was before the whole soundness thing started over a year ago, so it might be time to try that again.

 

[GTRJazz]

We learned a collected canter out in the park down the long paths I could sit right back and half halt
in the school his lack of balance caused him to change along and I just did not have enough time to correct before the next corner.
Also did not matter which leg he was on

 

[ester]

Riding squares has always helped us, and leg yielding towards the leading leg was fairly revolutionary- I suspect this generates similar to the shoulder fore situ MP suggests?? The latter is definitely what helped the counter canter but that wasn't tackled until he was very balanced and adjustable as given that he was older he couldn't quite get the concept .

 

[JFTDWS]

Definitely think that as she has SI buttons well installed, working SF in canter will help sit her up a bit and give you more to play with. A bit of leg yield (or plie or whatever you want to call it) can have the same effect if the horse is balanced enough to oblige.

Counter canter would definitely help with that too in time, but it's probably a bit of an ask to ride figures of 8 while her canter lacks adjustability. I'm also a bit hesitant about excessive use of counter canter these days as I'm sure it was one of the reasons F found changes so counter-intuitive.

I also find endless transitions within and into canter help with balance over time. The slim line look is great, btw.

 

[milliepops]

I'm also a bit hesitant about excessive use of counter canter these days as I'm sure it was one of the reasons F found changes so counter-intuitive.

As an aside, I couldn't agree more. This was also millie's problem and the reason why I encouraged Kira to do a change right from the first months in the school. She has been so ridiculously easy to work the changes with by comparison. Counter canter is then just about balance and obedience to the aids. I plan to take the same approach with salty.

 

[Casey76]

Thanks everyone. I'll definitely look towards using SF to SI into and in the canter.

I still have too much of a tendency to hang on to the front end when I'm concentrating on exercises. I also forget to breathe a lot of the time; and as T is well used to transitioning down on a breath out I find that she falls back into trot when I remember to breathe!

I think I really need to work on the adjustability within the pace (while I'm remembering to breathe) while working large/freely and also letting T take more responsibility for maintaining the same pace until I ask her otherwise, rather than pushing her on every stride.

Thanks for the ideas, and Id welcome more

 

[SwishMyTail]

an instructor once said to me the only way to improve the canter is to canter, do more and more canter work. obviously that doesn’t just mean tearing about the place.

do a zillion transitions (walk trot) and work on adjustability as you say. canter poles too and also raised poles.

i wouldnt be doing walk-canter or counter canter yet

 

[SmallSteps]

an instructor once said to me the only way to improve the canter is to canter, do more and more canter work. obviously that doesn’t just mean tearing about the place.

Ooo, I don't know. I think as the horse gets stronger, canter certainly gets a lot easier and cantering isn't the only way to achieve that.

Another vote for the transitions though - I love the Nick Skelton exercise of alternating five strides of trot, five strides of canter, five strides trot, five strides canter. The precision of transition after five strides really shows up all my weaknesses lol. Better to have a few good quality strides then more poor ones, I think, and I find that exercise really good for building the quality without reaching the point where they can't sustain it.

 

[Casey76]

do a zillion transitions (walk trot) and work on adjustability as you say. canter poles too and also raised poles.

i wouldnt be doing walk-canter or counter canter yet

TBH doing walk to canter has improved the quality of the canter depart 100% as it really makes T sit on her haunches. After all of the issues we've had with the canter (my issues included), teaching walk to canter hasn't been an problem.

Teaching counter canter was introduced mainly because she still has a tendency to go off on the wrong leg, so the thinking was, well if we can *ask* for the "wrong" leg, T will then distinguish between which leg I'm asking for. Unfortunately if she goes off on the wrong leg, but still has correct inside bend, it feels a lot more balanced than true counter canter *shrug*. It's just one of those Tartine-isms.

We'll get there eventually.

 

[DabDab]

As above, I like canter SI and leg yield but also one my favourites is medium canter to working canter to medium canter etc on a 20m circle (or slightly larger if they really struggle). It will feel fairly ick to start but then when you go large again you can almost instantly feel the improvement, so it's a nice exercise for finishing on a good note