schooling tips and exercises to improve canter

[tikino]

i have recently started to work quite a lot to improve my young horses canter. she is unbalance and therefore keeps becoming dis united etc. she will strike of on the right legs both front and back the changes it. is there any exercises that i can do while schooling her to improve this problem. we are also working on her to flex and bend in walk and trot she is very green.

thank you

 

[tikino]

anyone ????

 

[Sanolly]

How is her trot work? With green babies/youngsters I tend to get the trot in the school absolutely solid before attempting canter, and just canter out on hacks.
When introducing canter in the school I exaggerate the aids - I find it easier to actually say "sit up, inside shoulder back, inside hip forward and *canter*" with the strike off when you say canter. Possibly teaching you to suck eggs but make your transition on the corner and maybe canter say 5 strides before coming back to trot, making sure the downwards transition is balanced and steady without the trot being rushed.
When you feel she is capable, extend the amount of strides until you are cantering the whole of the long side. Don't make her canter the short side until she is more supple and balanced.
After this, when she is more balanced in canter then you can introduce canter poles. Another good exercise is to put her on a 20m circle, canter half the circle then downwards transition to trot for 3/4 circle, repeat a few times on each rein.

 

[JenHunt]

lots of transitions to help her learn to use her quarters, and to develop her balance a bit at a time. She'll find it easier to learn to balance by doing it a bit at a time than to keep cantering round and round.

and I agree with sanolly that her trot needs to be well established first really.

 

[tikino]

thanks guys will try this and just work away with her quietly. i am going to lunge her a few times a week to get her to work on her balance without a rider

 

[ChesnutsRoasting]

i have recently started to work quite a lot to improve my young horses canter. she is unbalance and therefore keeps becoming dis united etc. she will strike of on the right legs both front and back the changes it. is there any exercises that i can do while schooling her to improve this problem. we are also working on her to flex and bend in walk and trot she is very green.

thank you

You can help her by be being balanced yourself. Don't collapse at the hip, lots of inside leg to support your horses inside leg. Don't canter for long periods, go on large circle - trot half, ask for canter for half, bring back to trot and so on. Another good tip is canter on longer stretches so she can loosen up a bit. I found rising to the canter helps enormously in allowing them to use their back and back end effectively - as long as she's not too fresh!