The "showjumping canter"- how do you obtain it??

[char3101]

Please say you know what i mean, that near walking speed catner that i've seen most showjumpers do, apparently you have to control it through the bottom of your back, but it just feels like i'm tensing my back when i do it?? Any suggestions??

 

[Deefa]

A SJing Canter is just a bouncy collected canter. Can you do collections and extentions in your gaits? With harry i just get a good Working canter with hm and slowly half halt him to get the collection. But remember to keep your legs on so he doesn't drop down a pace

 

[tigers_eye]

I disagree. The horse needs to be able to produce a high degree of self-carriage to be able to do this canter and, more importantly, to be able to jump out of it. Therefore you should be "holding" him as little as possible with either leg or hand. The horse should be schooled to be electric off the leg, so your leg should be away from their sides. To teach it initially you may have to put the leg on to stop them from trotting, but it shouldn't be a must for keeping the canter. Much will be dictated by the strength and athletic ability of the horse.

To acheive it through the seat I find the best way to think about it is to always have your bottom in contact with the saddle, how light or heavy you have to be to hold the canter. To maintain this contact you actually have to be very supple through the lower back and knees. They have to absorb the movement of the horse. You can then restrict the stride by using your abdominal muscles. David Broome gave me a useful exercise for containing the onward-bound horse in this canter: on the right rein canter along one side of the school (easiest on short side if it's quite small), then turn using your weight and shoulders so that you are returning to the previous long side at 45 degrees. Keep the horse straight as long as possible so that he doesn't know which way he's going, then make him almost pirouette to the right, again not using the hand. (Have a feeling I've made that sound more complicated than it is, you're basicly cantering a triangle and using the side of the school to make the horse back off). Bear in mind you cannot acheive this canter overnight, watch the top showjumpers warming up, their horses will be able to produce it whilst looking very relaxed and with no pulling involved.

 

[henryhorn]

It takes a lot of muscle strength for a horse to achieve that canter so lungeing in a pessoa or side reins helps get it. We struggled with one of our horses for ages, he was just so strong and forward going, and we didn't want to keep half halting every few strides.
Our local SJ professional told us to take him home and lunge him on a small circle (10 to 12 metres) with the side reins between his front legs to the girth.) I wasn't happy about this as it sounded so restrictive but damn me, it worked! Initially he couldn't do more than a couple of balanced strides then within five days he was cantering balanced and slow.
I've advised a couple of forum people to try this and it's worked for them too. Not a good idea unless you have tried asking for a slower canter with your seat and got little response, but for a big lumbering canter it works miracles.
He continued to keep the balanced canter from then on and we never had trouble again.
once the horse learns how to carry himself it's very easy to ask him to give it.

 

[RunToEarth]

Yes I am one of the people on the forum whom Henryhorn shared her good advice with. Due to his teeth and everything it is being a slow process, but with supervision of Bekka and Rob I can feel a great change in my horse through lunging as HH described.

 

[LEC]

HH do you think this method would pick my horse off his forehand? My horse is being trained to work in a higher outline because in canter his head just gets lower and lower until he cannot balance himself. He will also drop behind the leg all the time when he finds something hard so just wondering if you think this would help him or hinder him?

 

[viola]

I really like the advice you got from tigers_eye and agree that getting this 'bouncy canter' takes a lot patience and skills and feel (don't worry about using your lower back - whoever talks about lower back almost always means abdominals I would strongly disagree with all the 'in between legs tools' and lunging on tiny circles. The latter is a short-cut and works as short-cuts do - a horse will either end up with a broken soul, problems with joints or back. It is, however, a quite a popular method among SJ, my trainer also used it on his horses. The thing is, he had those horses coming in tens to his yard and wanted to 'make' them quickly. He also used another method: long reining with two lunge lines attached to the bit like reins, then going through the higest holes on top of the roller and back to the lunger hands. A horse would be cantered like this on a 15m circle and you would use lunge lines in your hands like you would use reins. You would stand in the middle of the circle not behing the horse. Being passionate about progressive training and non-invasive aids I didn't like it but we were told to lunge those horses that way and it indeed worked. I guess it is up to the owner to decide if they want to have a horse made quickly and enjoy while his form lasts or invest some more time into teaching big horses/big movers how to balance themselves and let them get to the top of their abilities.

 

[pixiebee]

this is where im very lucky. i can get my new forest to canter pratically on the spot, with plenty of impulsion still.. and from this i can turn almost on the spot to the next jump and a few strides before the jump as push him on and because he has loads of impulsion from the very slow but bouncy canter-he clears fences at ease with really not much speed required. great for jumping against the clock to as it enables you to do very tight turns without going at breakneck speed and risking your horse falling! worth every moment of training believe me!!

 

[radicalequine]

Very well put by Tigers Eye. It seems to me that Deefa seems to misunderstand the whole concept of a 'showjumping canter'. Control, rhythm, balance ...... Think about it - horses are not made to jump - it is what we make them do. Their push comes from behind - not hauling themselves along in front or bouncing around! Maintain a good canter and your horse will find his jump easier. Rhythm must be maintained. It is the only way to teach your horse not to rush his fences. He must also learn to alter his stride without rushing. The harder your horse works at this the stronger his loins and back legs will become and the easier his job will be. I would suggest that you have a knowlegable person on the ground for guidance!

 

[henryhorn]

I was a bit horrified when we were advised to try this, but the person concerned is very careful what he does with his horses and had two in last year's Foxhunter Final. he has some horses long term and they appear sound and healthy!
I have probably mostly followed the method of training of the Spanish Riding school most of my life, and the person who replied saying you can achieve the same thing by sheer long term schooling is of course correct, but what she doesn't appreciate is that firstly you need to have a lot of money to pay for training to teach you to be able to do this, and secondly some horses are not young unmade babies but older stroppy so and sos!
If the reins are fitted correctly (not strapping the horse's head down but coming into play when the head goes too high) the horse quickly learns to balance himself. The job of the lunger is to ensure the horse is stepping under sufficiently with his back end so that he can actually lighten his forehand , if you let them trail round it would be completely pointless and damaging to the back.
I probably should have said do not attempt this on a young or unfit horse, what I am talking about is for a horse who is over 6 and used to canter work under saddle. Neither do you go in wham and ask for millions of circles, it probably takes a couple of days to get just two steps in balance, and after ten days they can easily canter several circles..
In a perfect world we would all have balanced horses, trainers on tap and do everything the proper way, there is a middle route which is the one I tend to use, some horses may need a little artificial help as do some riders!
Like any idea this one needs using carefully, but it's the best method I know for improving canter unless you are already a Grand Prix rider, and it seems to have worked on everything we have tried it on!
LEC, ask Piaffe, she too tried it and saw a huge improvement. It looks pretty impossible the first couple of goes then suddenly the horse gets what's required and the canter is transformed..

 

[MummyEms]

Sorry to reinstate an old post but how short would the side reins be going through legs under to the girth?

 

[pennandh]

In all honesty, if you want a showjumping canter that's actually useful for showjumping, pop onto Amazon and get yourself a copy of Successful Showjumping With Tim Stockdale. Proper, no-nonsense advice in plain English, and he gets his horses going round courses properly, which is more than you can say for some showjumpers in this day and age (not all of them, obviously, but I see far too many throw rhythm out of the window).