Magical cantering

[TarrSteps]

This is one of my "get inside people's heads" questions.

I spent quite a lot of time today listening to people talk about "Getting a better canter," "Not having enough canter" etc. This has become the buzz word for jumping now (and it is partly fashion as people jumped for years and years before is became the thing everyone says) and while it is, indeed, essential to have the pace you need, I wonder sometimes how riders interpret the direction.

Do you know what the "ideal" canter is for your horse? How do you know? Do you know what the most usual best correction is if you don't have the canter you need? Do you know what the correction is if your horse surprises you and doesn't react as usual? What are you looking for when you want that canter?

I don't so much mean exercises at home - in my experience people really only use a handful of exercises to develop or test the canter. I mean what corrections do you make in the moment? Specifically as you start jumping and in the warm up. Do you have exercises you do that you know will get you what you want? Do you wait to jump a fence and use that feedback? Do you aim for the ideal or get more and then throttle back? What about on course?

Just musing. I just find it interesting when people get given advice and nothing changes - I wonder if they don't understand, don't know what to do, or think they're doing it already.

 

[Cragrat]

Ok, not me, but my son and his horse started having problems jumping skinnies in indoor XC situations.

Took them back to his instructor, who said they needed a 'better canter'

To improve it, they worked on changes of oace within the canter, walk to canter and halt to canter transitions. They then put it into practice over some jumps, my son being exhorted to remember, and reproduce, the short bouncy canter they had just been working on. Half halts were also used. Skinnies jumped with pin point accuracy.

Tested today in an outdoor XC clinic, and their canter was noticeably better no problems with skinnies! He has learned that his horse needs a short bouncy canter for accurate jumping, that the exercises reminded him what this feels like, and that by asking for good transitions he can get the canter he needs. If he doesnt get it, or loses it, a half halt is usually effective, now the horse is clear about what he wants.

I am still working on basic canter transitions with my horse ( v green) so I am looking for him to remain forward and into the contact, to keep his back lifted and not to hollow in up and down transitions, and to keep a good quality stride through out. If I don't get what I am looking for, I usually bring him back to trot, rebalance him and try again. He also needs to develop the correct muscles, so I don't ask for too much at a time.

Don't know if that is what you wanted to know?

 

[Lolo]

Al has struggled long and hard with Reg to find the magical canter. I think the problems came a lot from her having not ever really known it, so it has been a lot of exercises to improve the canter's adjustability and then a lot of rounds where she's experimented with it until she got something they both liked. And then on top of that, adjusting her idea of the ideal canter so that it matched Reg's.

So just trial and error really until she felt it. This winter helped a lot, jumping frequently on horses who were more established to get the feel of what was right for them and how they jumped from it. And this year she seems to be able to articulate what is needed to help create this ideal rather than a slightly vague explanation about it not being 'right'!

 

[RachelFerd]

I perceive it just as having "enough" impulsion in regard to jumping. Impulsion being defined as controllable energy - horse will come back, horse will go forward instantaneously on request. Lots of people aim for short bouncy canter and get short, underpowered canter by mistake.

TBH I think canter rhythm is the better thing to focus on - I am lucky, mine keeps a lovely rhythm and a nice free flowing canter automatically - don't actually think it crossed my mind once today whilst SJing which goes to show that with him it doesn't really need thinking about.

 

[Madali]

I have a super welsh cob who jumps like a stag out of her natural canter rhythm which is quite fast. Over the last year as we have become more advanced "I use this term loosely" trainers have suggested that I slow it down but still keep the impulsion. In theory this is great but my mare is just really unhappy and has become a stopper. I have therefore reverted to her natural rhythm and hay ho she is back to normal.

 

[Bantry]

Yes I know what my horse's ideal jumping canter is. When I have it, he takes me to a fence and because its forward and in a good rhythm I can see a stride from a mile off or if I can't see it I know I'll be right when I get to the fence. Its a canter that has been set up way before we get to the fence which means I have to do very little work in front of the fence because the horse is in front of my leg.

How do I get it? After warming up, ask for a canter transition and then ask him to move up a gear while thinking "up" rather than letting him go onto his forehand. Other ways include walk canter transitions and also cantering a small controlled circle. Very good for highlighting if there isn't enough impulsion in the canter! When I'm happy with the canter we'll start jumping but it I feel him fading in front of the fence and I'm working too hard to keep the revs up then I'll go back to walk-canter transitions or get after him to move him forward.

Once we get into the arena you can't take it for granted so set off in a good forward canter, then squeeze to check that I get a reaction. If I do and he moves off my leg that'll do. If he doesn't react then he's not on my leg aid and I'll really kick him forward if I have to. Then sit and bring him back, then squeeze again and this time I should get a reaction straight away.

 

[aran]

EXACTLY what Bantry has said!
It's taken me a while to suss it out with Beau as I was used to my TB who I just didn't need to test but with Beau Nick Turner has taught me to do what Bantry has said and that works perfectly!

 

[Cortez]

Are you talking about collection? That's what it sounds like (*which is not magic - it's just....collection).

 

[khalswitz]

This is one of my "get inside people's heads" questions.

I spent quite a lot of time today listening to people talk about "Getting a better canter," "Not having enough canter" etc. This has become the buzz word for jumping now (and it is partly fashion as people jumped for years and years before is became the thing everyone says) and while it is, indeed, essential to have the pace you need, I wonder sometimes how riders interpret the direction.

Do you know what the "ideal" canter is for your horse? How do you know? Do you know what the most usual best correction is if you don't have the canter you need? Do you know what the correction is if your horse surprises you and doesn't react as usual? What are you looking for when you want that canter?

I don't so much mean exercises at home - in my experience people really only use a handful of exercises to develop or test the canter. I mean what corrections do you make in the moment? Specifically as you start jumping and in the warm up. Do you have exercises you do that you know will get you what you want? Do you wait to jump a fence and use that feedback? Do you aim for the ideal or get more and then throttle back? What about on course?

Just musing. I just find it interesting when people get given advice and nothing changes - I wonder if they don't understand, don't know what to do, or think they're doing it already.

I've found Geoff's good jumping canter now (I won't say ideal, as I feel it is very green and needs worked on).

For me, it is having him listening, NOT on the forehand (The hard part and what needs work and progression), plenty of energy but NOT being long and flat - it feels like a bouncing ball kind of canter, and I can adjust him in that canter, and never feel like he's fighting me.

The canter has to be able to open up for wide fences without going flat, and shorten for skinnies/uprights/combinations without losing energy.

We are still working on 'the canter', but really it isn't one canter, but three (or five in XC) gears where we have what we need in terms of obedience, engagement, impulsion and balance.

I know how to ask for it, and I know when schooling how to get it when he doesn't want to give it to me, but having it consistent and quickly retainable between fences is something we are still working towards.

 

[TarrSteps]

Are you talking about collection? That's what it sounds like (*which is not magic - it's just....collection).

The title is a bit of a joke (clearly not a funny one!) on "magical thinking".

I'm not talking about anything. I'm asking people what they do/think/understand when they are told/given the advice that they "don't have enough" canter. It's become such a buzzword, I hear it constantly in lessons and at competitions, and read it on the Internet (right up there with "improving confidence" - I know what it means but I think it's odd an odd goal/piece of advice without discussing actual practical components) but I'm not sure riders/recipients/students all understand it the same way.

I'm curious what people actually DO when they are told this. Since I can't very well ask the riders I'm watching in the moment (unless they are my own students in which case I usually know because we've discussed it) I'm asking people on here. Quite often, when I see the advice doled out, I don't actually see much change, or, if I do, it's not always a consistent and effective change. Most often people speed up.

So I guess the basic question is, when your instructor or whomever says "you don't have enough canter" or you know you don't have enough canter, what do you do to fix it? The answer might not be the same for everyone.

"Collection" is another conversation with regards to jumping, although related. Technically, collection as in bringing the hind leg under and shifting the balance back probably IS what is needed in many cases, but practically, when people are told that in the moment, it often results (I fully undersand this is not the goal) in an underpowered canter with, in many cases, not enough step to get down the lines.

I'm just musing on semantics, really. I hear/see these phrases bandied about and they sound great, but I'm not sure they have concrete, practical, well understood definitions. I do realise within the context of lessons the phrase may be shorthand for a prior discussion which is partly what I'm musing on - when you hear the phrase, what does it mean?

 

[TarrSteps]

As an example, I recently instructed two students who did not have good jumping canters in the warm up. For one horse, the correction was to do a very specific set of transitions, for another it was to get the horse in front of the leg by any means necessary until the reaction was, as Bantry said, automatic. Same goal, different means necessary. Over this weekend, I watched quite a few people get told that they didn't have enough canter and, in many cases, I did not see an immediate and consistent correction or I saw a disproportionate correction. This would suggest they didn't really know what to do to fix the situation. I'm not criticising, quite the opposite. Maybe the reason so many people seem to struggle in this area, and find it only through long term trial and effort, is because we are using a term we do not adequately or properly explain to riders?

Or are we telling people to look for something that doesn't exist, a "magical canter" which makes everything okay? Or does it exist. . . .?

(As a note, the school of thought I grew up in, to a large part, maintains that every horse has a "lick" it jumps best from and part of the goal is to make the way of going as consistent as possible. Within that rhythm the horse is adjustable but the canter, ideally, stays "easy" and consistent and produces the best jump.)

 

[ann-jen]

I've never had to worry about it with Jenny a she has a good natural canter to jump from that is very adjustable. But Dee naturally wants to go faster flatter longer. The most helpful thing I've found for getting her into a better canter has been to compare her to a bouncing basket ball lol. She naturally wants to bounce ahead of me running if you know what I mean and I have to get the 'ball' to bounce directly perpendicular to the floor instead of miles ahead! This analogy has helped me so much I now find myself chanting bounce bounce bounce in my head (at least I hope it's in my head and not out loud lol)

 

[siennamum]

My jumping trainer spends 15 mins at the start of a lesson working on opening up the stride (in trot and canter) and really getting the horse forward. We then have a session of forwards and back in canter, but really making the horse move on.
We don't do grids but pretty much all lessons focus on getting the approach and canter right with the use of poles. both in terms of impulsion and length of stride. The canter feels really forwards and big & just on the verge of too strong, but the jumps always feel easy and you never have to take a pull.

I find that what most people think is a good canter is too small, has no jump and power. I'd rather have a powered up canter than one that verges on being 4 time, which you see a lot.

Having said that, I so rarely do any real riding these days that my views are generally theoretical haha.

 

[Booboos]

This is slightly off topic as it's not exactly about improving a jumping canter, but I had an allrounder who loved SJ and as soon as he saw poles he had an amazing, pingy canter. My aim in dressage was to reproduce the same enthusiasm!

For dressage my aim now is the collected canter that seems to give you sooooooo much time around the arena before the movements come. You have time to half-halt, prepare, correct your position, movements come along slowly rather than one on top of the other. I have no idea how to create this! My trainer shouts at me and I try my best!

 

[TableDancer]

I am a great believer in having the right canter solving most of your jumping problems - and if you combine it with riding good lines, balanced turns (without losing THE canter!) and straightness you are pretty much there I actually don't see it as a fashion, I first heard about it as promoted by Albert Voorn about 15 years ago so it is hardly a flash in the pan - I do think it has filtered down through the levels though which can only be a good thing.

As far as riders' understanding is concerned, I do agree that it is patchy and that we need to be careful about trotting out the expression and making assumptions about their understanding. I also think a common misconception is to mistake power for speed - or rather vice versa - so it is definitely something we need to take time to teach. However, I also think that "over-explaining" can be a mistake here as what we really need riders to develop is a feel for what is right not some theoretical understanding. I therefore try to use exercises and get them to give me feedback on what they are feeling to help them with their own feedback mechanism which should help them in the ring (in theory). Of course different people have different learning styles and some would like to discuss the theory and underlying principles all day, but ultimately what matters is learning to feel what is going on underneath you and how to influence it. In that sense, I would liken it to trying to teach "connection" or "contact".

I agree that it is important that riders not only understand what they are looking for in terms of their canter, but also what is the go-to quick fix for that horse, in general: when they are in the warm-up and are nervous at a competition they need a simple plan of action... If the reactions aren't what are expected/planned for then that can be discussed at the next lesson and a different or more refined plan be put into place...

 

[Meowy Catkin]

The problem I found when working on getting a good canter for jumping, is that when my instructor said 'that's it, that's what you're aiming for,' it felt slightly too fast and powerful to me. It took quite a few lessons to get me comfortable with the feel of it.

 

[JVB]

I know when I don't have the right canter as my mare can shorten like no business and easily fit in 9 strides to a 6 stride distance, I have to work really hard on making her open up and have more oopmh, so lots of cantering in a light seat and asking for more power, I don't think she knows how to rush and flatten hence we are hopeless in jump off's lol!

 

[only_me]

As an aside, when cantering over poles on the flat (as part of warm up in jump lesson) we could quite happily get 5 strides in the 4 stride distance, and it felt very easy. Told to open up canter slightly more and so i relaxed my leg a bit more (so not as "holding") and getting 4 was as easy as getting 5. But no difference in the quality of canter, i just stopped holding and let him flow that bit more.

In the same session once we were jumping (with same canter) we consitently got 4 strides very happily in the 5 stride distance, over 2 1.15m parallels. I am guilty of not sitting up quick enough after the fence though but it never felt as though we were running.

In the past i have tried shortening his canter to improve his jump but we ended up with too little power and Both of us were not happy coming into the fence like that. However this season i am pushing his canter "up a gear" and just collecting the power in my hands. What i find really difficult is keeping my hands soft but keeping the contact into and over the fence.

Billys canter is good, however is still developing. His magic canter i think i may have found but. Havent tested it yet way from home but fingers crossed.

But canter halts get him off the forehand, lower his hips and as long as i dont forget the power, work very well.

Ive heard of the lick before but we tend to call it either the showjumpers canter or the eventers canter - the latter tending to be more forward and flatter (and like to stand off!)

 

[zaminda]

I think Tarr Steps is spot on in saying every horse has a 'lick' it goes best from. My first pony could do what we called the showjumpy canter all day long, he would however stop in that particular rhythm given half a chance, or even if not! He jumped better by miles from what would be at least described as a working hunter canter, or even the pace he would go XC. My older arab doesn't jump well in trot, but she has a rhythm and regardless of speed (she does tend to cover the ground) jumps well as long as it is even. The other arab needs to work on more forwardness in her canter, because even though it is even, she doesn't always carry me forward.

 

[TableDancer]

The problem I found when working on getting a good canter for jumping, is that when my instructor said 'that's it, that's what you're aiming for,' it felt slightly too fast and powerful to me. It took quite a few lessons to get me comfortable with the feel of it.

You are not alone - this is very common! We tend ito kill the canter by mistake to make it more controllable, rather than improving the balance to make the powerful canter more controllalbe...

As an aside, when cantering over poles on the flat (as part of warm up in jump lesson) we could quite happily get 5 strides in the 4 stride distance, and it felt very easy. Told to open up canter slightly more and so i relaxed my leg a bit more (so not as "holding") and getting 4 was as easy as getting 5. But no difference in the quality of canter, i just stopped holding and let him flow that bit more.

In the same session once we were jumping (with same canter) we consitently got 4 strides very happily in the 5 stride distance, over 2 1.15m parallels. I am guilty of not sitting up quick enough after the fence though but it never felt as though we were running.

In the past i have tried shortening his canter to improve his jump but we ended up with too little power and Both of us were not happy coming into the fence like that. However this season i am pushing his canter "up a gear" and just collecting the power in my hands. What i find really difficult is keeping my hands soft but keeping the contact into and over the fence.

Billys canter is good, however is still developing. His magic canter i think i may have found but. Havent tested it yet way from home but fingers crossed.

But canter halts get him off the forehand, lower his hips and as long as i dont forget the power, work very well.

Ive heard of the lick before but we tend to call it either the showjumpers canter or the eventers canter - the latter tending to be more forward and flatter (and like to stand off!)

V interesting and I like your description of what you need to do to get the MC

 

[loobylu]

Maybe the reason so many people seem to struggle in this area, and find it only through long term trial and effort, is because we are using a term we do not adequately or properly explain to riders?

I still remember one of my first PC rallies, aged 14, where everytime I came into the fence, the instructor said 'more, more, come on, MORE'. Nowadays that would be perfectly clear to me (if perhaps a little late in delivery!) and, if not I'm confident enough to ask what a strange instructor means, but at the time I did spend rather a lot of time wondering, 'more what?!'. Needless to say the poor girl probably wondered why I didn't change anything! I now teach a little and try very hard to avoid being vague.

 

[Goldenstar]

I think it's easy to struggle with this as the optimal canter for jumping will change as a horse progresses .
So what is best for say a big five yo who has not learnt or is strong enough to sit in the canter will not be the best canter when the same horse is seven .
Reading that progression is difficult sometimes especially if you ride few horses as I think riders who ride only one or a couple of horse learn to ride one feel and it makes it harder to feel what's happening and change as the horse changes .
When you are riding lots I think it's easier to ride from much more from the feel in the moment and not from the remembered feel .
Not sure I have expressed that very well but it's the best I cam manage .

 

[TarrSteps]

I am a great believer in having the right canter solving most of your jumping problems - and if you combine it with riding good lines, balanced turns (without losing THE canter!) and straightness you are pretty much there I actually don't see it as a fashion, I first heard about it as promoted by Albert Voorn about 15 years ago so it is hardly a flash in the pan - I do think it has filtered down through the levels though which can only be a good thing.

Well, obviously having a good canter to jump from isn't a new thing. I didn't explain myself well enough. Littauer, Ansell, Paalman, Wright, Seunig, Williams . . . any number of people have said the same thing for decades, even centuries. It's just basic physics. (Although, I'd agree the "3-2-1" method was a "thing" too, especially back when they put lathes on the jumps and other weirdness.) All I meant was it's fashion now, when anyone has any kind of problem jumping, for someone to say "you don't have enough/the right canter". Tbh, I think, at least by the time they are having a problem, most riders know this!

I'm really just trying to find out if, when people are told this, they think "Oh, yes! I need to do xyz to fix that. Thank-you for reminding me." Instruction doesn't mean you say or hear something once and never need to hear it again, of course, so when people give it as advice, are they really just using a shorthand for a process they understand?

I do definitely agree with the under powered comments. It's human nature to want to slow down when we feel anxious or out of control - that is a powerful inclination to need to overcome and takes practice. (I'm always telling people to use their canter, to go places in canter, not just do their couple of circles and long sides towards the end of the schooling session and then be done.)

I actually don't think it needs to be over complicated at all. In many ways jumping is much easier to teach than flat work and most canters can be improved with some very simple adjustments (as per om's post) and some practice. I guess I'm just wondering if the phrase means something specific to people or if they are hearing it and thinking, "Okay, that's great. Now what do I DO about it right now?"

 

[HotToTrot]

I don't normally get told that I don't have enough canter! But if I do get told that (and if I agree with it) then I put my leg on and squeeze. I want his legs to be moving faster underneath him. Snap snap snap, not flow flow flow. The pace may get a bit faster, too, but it doesn't have to.

 

[TarrSteps]

I don't normally get told that I don't have enough canter! But if I do get told that (and if I agree with it) then I put my leg on and squeeze. I want his legs to be moving faster underneath him. Snap snap snap, not flow flow flow. The pace may get a bit faster, too, but it doesn't have to.

I think that's getting to the point of my musing - so you have to do, in the moment at least, the exact opposite to only me to get the canter you need for jumping.

 

[HotToTrot]

I think that's getting to the point of my musing - so you have to do, in the moment at least, the exact opposite to only me to get the canter you need for jumping.

Ha! Well my horse is older than OM's and has been trained by pros to go a certain way - if I don't have enough canter, it's because I'm using too much hand and not enough leg. So I don't need to "fix" or improve the canter. It's all installed for me, I just have to press the right button to get it! It's an instant change.

It's a bit like being in a bakery, vs your kitchen. If I want a cupcake in a bakery, but pick up cheesecake by mistake, I put it down and pick up the cupcake. Easily fixed. But if at home, I made a cheesecake by mistake, then I'd have to do rather more work to make the cupcake that I really want.... Sounds like OM has to make the cupcake, where I just have to pick it up, because the baker has made it for me.

 

[HeresHoping]

This is slightly off topic as it's not exactly about improving a jumping canter, but I had an allrounder who loved SJ and as soon as he saw poles he had an amazing, pingy canter. My aim in dressage was to reproduce the same enthusiasm!

I had one of these. Show her the poles and it was like a switch went on. She impressed the late Mr Dunning by actually cantering to the same speed as his on the ground helper's walking pace. It was round, hugely comfortable, and it felt so powerful. It came about with a few up and down transitions within the pace progressing to canter walk, canter halt transitions. He used to yell at me to get my bum out of the saddle, but I think it was largely the bum deep in the saddle and driving from behind into the bridle that achieved it.

However, I couldn't reproduce this canter in my dressage tests no matter how hard I tried...she always wanted the huge strides without the roundness and it was always so frustrating to try and get her to move to a medium without falling on her forehand - usually by performing an enormous leap and pulling the reins out of my totally inadequate hands. Collection would invariable result in a bit of an argument for the first few (100) times.

 

[TarrSteps]

Ha! Well my horse is older than OM's and has been trained by pros to go a certain way - if I don't have enough canter, it's because I'm using too much hand and not enough leg. So I don't need to "fix" or improve the canter. It's all installed for me, I just have to press the right button to get it! It's an instant change.

It's a bit like being in a bakery, vs your kitchen. If I want a cupcake in a bakery, but pick up cheesecake by mistake, I put it down and pick up the cupcake. Easily fixed. But if at home, I made a cheesecake by mistake, then I'd have to do rather more work to make the cupcake that I really want.... Sounds like OM has to make the cupcake, where I just have to pick it up, because the baker has made it for me.

Great analogy!

I think the change is often easier than it's sold though. The exercises commonly recommended do help make horses stronger, more supple etc but they also act as objective tests - if you can't do the exercise then you have to make a change to get it done, and that change "improves the canter".

I have to say, I've rarely free jumped a horse that didn't have "enough" canter to get the job done. Horses canter the way they need to canter every day. They may not be able to sustain it around a whole course, with adjustments etc but I'm not always convinced it takes as much "work" as we've come to think.

Back to TD's comment, maybe going on about the canter actually DOES complicate the issue, rather than offering a more direct correction like "more leg, less hand" or "do x number of y transitions until you feel the change you want" or "change your position in x way" or even "use you stick once then contain that energy"?

 

[applecart14]

This is one of my "get inside people's heads" questions.

I spent quite a lot of time today listening to people talk about "Getting a better canter," "Not having enough canter" etc. This has become the buzz word for jumping now (and it is partly fashion as people jumped for years and years before is became the thing everyone says) and while it is, indeed, essential to have the pace you need, I wonder sometimes how riders interpret the direction.

Do you know what the "ideal" canter is for your horse? How do you know? Do you know what the most usual best correction is if you don't have the canter you need? Do you know what the correction is if your horse surprises you and doesn't react as usual? What are you looking for when you want that canter?

I don't so much mean exercises at home - in my experience people really only use a handful of exercises to develop or test the canter. I mean what corrections do you make in the moment? Specifically as you start jumping and in the warm up. Do you have exercises you do that you know will get you what you want? Do you wait to jump a fence and use that feedback? Do you aim for the ideal or get more and then throttle back? What about on course?

Just musing. I just find it interesting when people get given advice and nothing changes - I wonder if they don't understand, don't know what to do, or think they're doing it already.

I know when I am holding my horse back in canter, as it feels totally different. THis is normally when he gets tense, as he is shying at something and I tend to 'hold on' too much. I know what his normal canter is and I know what a collected canter and extended canter stride feels like.

But unless my horse was put in a big barn with walls all the same colour and nothing looking any different to anything else he wouldn't do a canter that didn't include a dozen shies in it.

 

[HotToTrot]

Back to TD's comment, maybe going on about the canter actually DOES complicate the issue, rather than offering a more direct correction like "more leg, less hand" or "do x number of y transitions until you feel the change you want" or "change your position in x way" or even "use you stick once then contain that energy"?

Well, I think a trainer should do both; go on about the canter, so the pupil understands the concept and the end goal, and also offer direct instructions, so the pupil knows how to try to achieve the goal. Then once you've worked out what works for that horse, in that scenario (because the same horse may need different exercises at different times) then you (the rider) have a bit of an arsenal to play around with, and you have a selection of methods that you can use to get the right canter (whether that's fixing it, or just finding it).

It's also up to the pupil to ask how to get "enough canter" if they don't have enough and they don't know how to get it. Then the trainer can tell them to use more leg, or to do X number of transitions. Sometimes a trainer can assume too much knowledge on the pupil's part and I guess it's hard to pitch the right balance between telling a pupil what the end goal shd be (more canter) and teaching them to suck eggs by telling them how to achieve that goal (more leg).

And, perhaps the trainer needs to ask the pupil what they are going to do about the lack of canter. The answer's a good indication of whether the rider knows how to fix the problem once it's been pointed out, or whether they need some assistance.