no canter only a rushed trot? help!!

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horseyperson

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I'm riding a green pony atm who is almost perfect walk and trot but when I ask her for canter all she does is a very rushed trot.
I'm pretty sure this is because she doesn't understand that the aid is for canter, not a quicker trot. Any help??
 
Use half halts to balance her, don't let her rush as she'll just get faster and more unbalanced. Ask for a few strides coming out of a corner onto a straight line to begin with, corners and circles are more difficult initially. Popping over a tiny cross pole can help getting them into canter too.
 
What Navaho says, but in addition I would pic something with an incline, it serves many purposes with green horses, it helps to collect them a bit, they have to get their back end under them more, plus it helps with any high jinx buck they may throw. I find it much easier to follow an older horse up a nice little hill when teaching a young horse to canter.

How is the pony on the ground, if he/she is responsive to voice commands perhaps you can use this, although I would go with the hill and lead on a hack every time.
 
I had this with my girl,,,

She was rushing to avoid the bigger issue of unbalance.
The 'cure' for us was a mixture:

Canter poles, asking for the transition over a pole,
and Walk to Canter transition (trying not to use 'pony club kicks!') - This was the trick to it - so she could learn to 'leap' into it rather than falling into it.

Honestly the best thing I did was get some lessons! - Just someone on the floor giving me timings and helping with some 'homework'.
Half the trouble for me was our balance, and being on the forehand.

Once they learn to 'push' rather than 'pull' themselves into it, its easy! :)
Get out hacking! - Have some fun with cantering!
 
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My welshie struggled with canter a lot and I found it easier to follow someone on a hack and get a canter that way... He found it much easier that way.

It took him a while to get it in the school but he wasn't very mentally mature so focused on hacking

Good luck
 
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