Mental block??

[Pilib]

I think I have a mental block...............

I have a lesson once a fortnight, my instructor is a good friend and we hack out together regularly. Lessons are great my horse and I have really improved. My old TB nannies her younger horse and we give them confidence out hacking.

I am really confident out hacking we have lots of off road hacking my boy is a saint and we canter everywhere, he knows the aid for canter and we regularly canter about the countryside. On Saturday I rode out with my instructor and we cantered across the park and jumped a few little logs. We do fun rides, we love the stubble, I've taken him to Newmarket and blasted him up the gallops.......Perfect..........

however I can't canter in the school!!!! It's so embarrassing! My instructor thinks I've got a mental block about it and I can't get over it!
I've suggested having a lesson in the park rather than the school to see if I can unblock myself! I really wanted to do some dressage this year and he is going so well but I can't unless we can sort out our canter!!!

Need to add instructor is BHSAI and list 4 dressage judge. Totally trust her and her teaching but any suggestions would be great..???.......... Feel like such a numpty!


Help!!!!!

 

[Scribbles]

You know, it could be your horse? Mine hates cantering in the school, fields and hack he is fine, even in circles, outdoor school is not so good, and indoor school is almost impossible!

I use little jumps to encourage the canter.

 

[Pilib]

I had a lesson on Friday and we used a few little jumps to see if that'd help. We had to keep making them bigger to get him to actually make an effort and put some in!!

 

[BFG]

Why not ask your instructor to ride the canter in the school for you then you can see that the horse is capable and that nothing is going to happen. Then maybe ask her to put you on the lunge to give you a little bit more confidence.

 

[Riverboy]

Hi - just a point it might be worth getting horsey checked. My boy would school beautifully out hacking and was always eager to canter - I too could not get him to canter in a school though. Instructor thought I had a mental block about it, or the pony was lazy - it turned out he had bone spavin.

That might not be the case here - I would try having lessons in a different space, getting your instructor to ride him, or just 'pushing' the trot so ned falls into canter for a stride or two then come back to an active trot....

Good luck!

xx

 

[Pilib]

I think I will ask her to have a go!

Trouble is she has tried things with him before and can't get a better tune out of him than I can.

Also I think she would have suggested that and she thinks it's me and my mentalness..........!

x

 

[Tallante]

Is it the case that you can't get canter or you can't get a good canter?

I understand the mental block thing, I had something similar many years ago after a bad fall on a corner in the school (horse fly bucked and kicked me in the head as I went down). After that I was petrified of corners. My fear made me tense and that made it doubly hard for horse to get into canter even when i thought I wanted to.

Assuming for the time being that you can't get any type of canter and you don't have the same or similar irrational fear as I once did, then try and just get any old canter.

Encourage him forward and allow him bumble his way into canter ; ask the instructor to put you on a lunge line and try it that way ; or perhaps find a bigger school for a one-off lesson. I remember that a canter was made easier in larger space as I didn't have to worry about the next corner coming up fast.

Most importantly try and get to grips with the mental block. Why is it there? when did it start? what caused it? what makes it worse? There is always a reason.

Good luck.

 

[Booboos]

Ask your instructor to have a go. If she can't or has problems then maybe there is an underlying issue you need to look at. If she can get him into canter she can do loads of transitions with him, getting him in the 'right frame of mind' to help you out and then you can pop on and do the same. If you do have a go, try not to think about it too much. Don't think "oh no, this is never going to happen, it's so tough, he'll never do it", just think "and now we canter" and it will just happen!!!