Struggling to canter

[Olliepoppy]

Hi, can anyone suggest exercises to help build up canter? My 7 year old cob only manages a few strides before falling back to trot. I find it hard to get him into canter in the first place and just as hard to keep him going. He canters fine when cavorting about his field so could he just be lazy? Many thanks in anticipation ☺

 

[alainax]

How's the trot? If canter is failing it's usually the trot that is the problem. Don't push into hurried steps. Need a nice soft balanced collected trot, and transition up into the canter depart. A lot of people will push the trot faster to get a canter, which results in an unbalanced and difficult canter, which the horse is more likely to drop out of. He needs to be in front of your leg, which you can teach him to be before practising canter.

 

[Meowy Catkin]

Do you have somewhere safe to canter on a hack or in a big field? If you do, go with another horse that is rock steady and has a responsible owner and get them to give you a tow IE they go into canter and you allow yours to follow suit. You will need to work out with the the rider if what you will shout if you want them to steady, go back to trot, speed up etc... which is why you want to ride with someone responsible, rather than someone who will just gallop and leave you for dust.

 

[Dave the dog]

Do you have somewhere safe to canter on a hack or in a big field? If you do, go with another horse that is rock steady and has a responsible owner and get them to give you a tow IE they go into canter and you allow yours to follow suit. You will need to work out with the the rider if what you will shout if you want them to steady, go back to trot, speed up etc... which is why you want to ride with someone responsible, rather than someone who will just gallop and leave you for dust.

Sound advice. You could possibly give more, a lot of people unintentionally snatch on the first or second neck stretch of the canter.

 

[Olliepoppy]

His trot is fine, not hurried at all. I can canter in an open field and he won't rush off just falls back in to trot quite quickly but schooling is even worse, I only get 2 or 3 strides from him. I don't have another horse to ride alongside unfortunately

 

[Barnacle]

Sounds like someone is unbalanced. How is he to lunge or free school?

 

[applecart14]

You will never get a good canter out of a bad trot so you need to make sure your horse is active in trot, but balanced. If you hear him clipping the back of his front heels with his hind toes then the trot is not balanced. Make sure your horse is active, and in a corner ask for canter, inside leg on the girth, outside leg behind.

Once in canter make sure you have a steady contact and your legs remain on his side, not kicking or nagging at him, but with even pressure.

 

[Olliepoppy]

I've not cantered him on the lunge as he falls out through his shoulder in trot so working on getting a decent circle in trot before moving up to canter. When schooling he often strikes off on the wrong lead so i am having to use exaggerated movements to get him on to the correct leg but even when he does get it right he still doesn't hold the canter for more than a few strides. I'm lucky if I can get a quarter of a large circle. We work in a grass field which is a bit uneven and has a slight slope and I wonder if he would do better if i took him to a proper arena..

 

[Meowy Catkin]

You really need to start on good ground and straight lines possibly with sweeping corners (nothing tight). In your situation I would do my best to find someone to go with you, even if you have to pay them, as having the encouragement of another horse will make everything click so much more easily and naturally for your horse.

 

[epeters91]

does your horse struggle to keep an insde bend when schooling? Maybe you need to go back a few steps as suggested and examin the trot. If he can canter in the field then it's obviously possible is it a saddle fitting issue or back problem? Could you be banging on his back a bit going into canter and so he's dropping back? I would be tempting to try to get him cantering on the lunge first to see if he still has a problem if he doesn't then you know its either something to do with having a rider on, being uncomfortable or possibly just lazy? Just try to make sure you cover all bases

 

[epeters91]

sorry I just read your comment about him falling out of the shoulder in trot on circles. I would say if that's the case he's definitely not going to be balanced enough to get into a good canter. Work on bending, leg yeilding and trying to stop him falling out. If possible get an instructor in so they can work with you to improve things xx

 

[HashRouge]

You could also try deliberately aiming for only 2-3 strides of canter, and building him up from that. So get a nice, balanced trot, ask for 3 strides of canter, then back to trot for half a circle, then 3 strides of canter and so on. Transitions can be good for improving impulsion, so you might find that his canter becomes more active and that you can gradually build it up, asking for a few more strides at a time. There is no point exhausting yourself trying to keep the canter going for as long as possible at the moment!

 

[acorn92x]

What everyone else has suggested so far has been very solid advice. My 7 year old cob is very reluctant to canter in the deep school at home which I know is a balance issue as she is more than capable of cantering beautifully out hacking and in her field. She does struggle on the lunge but that's due to the surface and the fact that the quality of her trot is variable due to her still being quite unbalanced and a little lazy in the school but she has improved hugely in the space of time that I've had her. Based on this, my biggest piece of advice for you would be to forget cantering in the school for the moment. Work on the quality of the trot and try to hack as much as possible, ideally with other horses when you want to canter and do lots of transitions and variations in the pace at trot, EG: Some faster strides then slow your rising right down so your horses trot slows and then push it back on again as this will help them balance and listen to what your asking - it's a very good exercise for horses that get bored easily!

I would suggest having her saddle/back and teeth checked to rule out any problems with them and then look at having some lessons with a good instructor as they will be able to advise you further.

 

[Olliepoppy]

Thank you all for some very constructive advice, that's given me a lot of different tactics to try to see which works best. A few months ago his trot was just as awful and he does still have problems bending on a circle but he has come on loads so I guess the canter will come in time with hard work also, thanks again

 

[Barnacle]

I've not cantered him on the lunge as he falls out through his shoulder in trot so working on getting a decent circle in trot before moving up to canter. When schooling he often strikes off on the wrong lead so i am having to use exaggerated movements to get him on to the correct leg but even when he does get it right he still doesn't hold the canter for more than a few strides. I'm lucky if I can get a quarter of a large circle. We work in a grass field which is a bit uneven and has a slight slope and I wonder if he would do better if i took him to a proper arena..

If he cannot canter on the lunge, he will struggle with someone on his back, let alone if he cannot trot a circle. Try some in-hand work getting him to do shoulder-in and then getting him to step his inside leg under his body as he goes around the circle. Then try introducing this in walk and do some counter-bending in walk also. If you can get the horse to bring his quarters in on the rail, you'll be able to get a nice canter strike-off later with that outside hind properly under him. Then start doing these exercises in trot and get really bored of them before you try to canter...

In the meantime you can teach him the canter aids on a straight line while out hacking with someone else (and I mean seat and voice really - you won't want to try asking for a specific lead yet so keep your legs and seat bones even for now). That way once he is able to bring his outside hind under in walk, you'll be able to ask for the transition to canter out of walk and he'll be set up to go straight into a correct lead and balanced canter.