Improving canter?

[sclarke1107]

Helloo, Just wandering how to improve my horses canter? She's a 15.2 cleveland bay x tb mare rising 7, i've had her for 2 years and been competing BSJA and intro level eventing. Her canter has been ok although she finds it hard to maintain being balanced and just tends to rush off on the forehand. I've tried stopping her when she goes on the forehand until she comes light and then asking her to canter again, and walk to canter transitions aswell as just persisting until i physically have to stop!!
She's old enough to have a decent canter but i'm struggling to get her there..
Anybody got any exercises or ideas???
Thanks
Sophie from Cornwall

 

[Grey_Eventer]

my 13 year old couldn't really canter properly...he knew how to canter, but he had no balance so basically galloped everywhere....
so i had lots of lessons and we to start with just did lots and lots of circles for the balance and also when he decided he would go really really fast i just put him onto a 20/15m circle and keep going until he decided he would stop being a pr*t. after a while he seemed to understand that he didnt need to gallop everywhere.
we then worked on doing lots of circles, decreasing increasing to get him to get his inseide leg underneath him etc.
it has helped so much not only with his canter but also with his dressage in general as he is now going nicely on the bit, lots of impulsion etc. it has also helped amazingly with his jumping. before it was just galloping into fences jumping them in a sort of spring way, not quite cat leap but nearly, now its all collected and nice.. jumping 1.10m competitions with ease...going to go 1.20m soon.....
lots of circles.....and i mean loads...
and also do you have an instructor who could help you??
and you just need to school her loads!

 

[sclarke1107]

haha i hope it gets better before she's 13! She's laid back off the leg and is such hard work! withing five minutes i'm boiling hot and losing the will to live.. well not quite..
She just finds it hard when i ask her to slow the canter down, and when i do circles she normally just konks out. She's a bit long in the back and needs to engage her hindlegs more so i think circles are a good idea.I've just bought one of those pessoa type things called topflyght topline activator which i might use so she has to balance herself and not rely on me.
I think as you say it's a fairly crucial part of jumping, she jumps very sensibly but sometimes at a competition ends up trotting into a fence because she's lost the impulsion in her canter.
It feels a bit like trying to ride a baby elephant! She's got a carefull jump and is competing at Discovery level but the canter situation is i think affecting how she jumps.
I guess i'm just going to have to keep persisting!
Thanks for your suggestions!

 

[pollyred2]

Hi my mare had a really onward bound canter that was just so flat,and the more unbalanced she got the flatter she went and so on....!! However one exercise has transformed her-which was to ride squares instead of circles,as I felt she was just moterbiking round the circle getting worse and worse!so now I concentrate on getting her totally straight,and as your coming up to the wall or fence of the arena(making sure she wont attept to jump out!)just keep going straight you can make a halt the first couple of times by the wall/fence,and so next time when you feel her backing off you can make the turn,rather like a pivot turn,with more outside hand and inside leg,then get the horse totally straight again before the next turn,this really made my mare think,and got her hind legs underneath her.

Anyway good luck with yours,every horse is different,just another idea incase it helps.
Best of luck

 

[mik]

Oh yes riding squares is excellent for this problem, and later you can lengthen along each side shorten for the corners and think pirouette. Also try more lateral work then transitions to canter, walk pirouette, shoulder in 1/4s in, half pass (just a few steps), this will help her collect and understand the half halts more, then canter, few strides and walk, wait for it, as the canter improves do more before the next transition, until it becomes, instead of a transition, a half halt, for collection and balance. She must learn to regard you half halts as collection and balancing commands, they might need to be a bit rough to start with!! But make them short and sharper, DONT GET INTO a pulling match, just ask every stride in you head, think steady;relax steady;relax steady,relax, hard work to start with but should get more subtle as you go on. Another good exercise is to work on a 20m circle with shoulder in to the outside, straighten and then canter, not easy to do but very useful. Also try canter poles and bounce caveletti, lunge or loose schooling if you can, to make her use her back muscles . Lots of schooling~!!!! good luck, she sounds nice.

 

[sclarke1107]

I've lunged her this morning just so i could see how she was moving without me faffing around, her trot has improved from last year and she's naturally using her backend more and tracking up nicely. Will try schooling her later and incorporate the exercises suggested and see what happens.
Lots to think about so thanks very much!

 

[KatB]

Mine is the same. First step was to make sure he is truly of the leg, eg not having to use the leg unless asking for a change in pace, and getting an instance reaction. We have been only cantering on a 10-12m circle for the least 3 weeks to encourage him to sit and engage, but keep the sessions short so YOU are asking for the downwards transition

As she strengthens up, she will find it easier