Weird cobxtrotter canter…

[maya2008]

Breeding related? Possibly been driven and taught to go a certain way? Both?

She knows the aid…then you can either have a very on the forehand lollop…or she can attempt to sit more. Which is impressively uncomfortable but I can feel how hard she’s trying! She’s done almost nothing for 2 years so we are only at the ‘starting to canter’ part of our fitness programme. It’s just…interesting! Her trot was equally interesting at first - head up high, parallel with the road, on the forehand, powering into the shoulders and RUN! That’s now a lovely, much more balanced gait with a softer, lower head carriage. So we’ve started on the canter. I’ve only attempted it in short bursts up slight hills as yet, and am torn between just sending her forwards (uphill!) in hope that it will become a more regular gait, or helping her with her attempts to sit more behind and be more balanced first. She doesn’t choose to canter in the field at all, just trots.

 

[Caol Ila]

My Shire-TBx was inclined to do a four beat “lollop” (good word!). She was like that from a 7 yr old until the day she died at 28. She could do a vaguely uphill 3 beat canter but my god you had to work for it. Really sending her forward, then riding lots of half halts while not getting too handsy about it because that would put you back to the four beat on the forehand special.

She had an amazing trot, though.

I don’t know what to do with these horses who have a naturally uphill, 3 beat canter. It’s weird. Is it normal??? lol.

 

[Patterdale]

She’s half pacing. Called tranter.
I have a cob x standardbred. He now canters well enough for a dressage test but it took years of hacking and all my skill…!
They will always have their own interpretation of the gait.

Best thing is lots of uphill forward canters on hacks. Mine has to be held well together, if you let him get strung out he will pace or trot.

They are great horses though, worth persevering! Join Standardbreds in the UK on Facebook, it’s a good resource.

 

[SEL]

When I worked in Oz retraining the trotters I used to take them to a long bit of beach following another horse who was fast. For some canter clicked quickly but for others it was tranter for ages.

My own cob finds a good canter hard in a 20*40 - but his trot is fabulous. I think getting them cantering out and about helps with the muscle memory before you try to balance them in any form.

 

[Celtic Jewel]

My Irish draught feels like she is galloping

 

[maya2008]

So sending her forward up a hill is the right choice?

 

[maya2008]

She’s half pacing. Called tranter.
I have a cob x standardbred. He now canters well enough for a dressage test but it took years of hacking and all my skill…!
They will always have their own interpretation of the gait.

Best thing is lots of uphill forward canters on hacks. Mine has to be held well together, if you let him get strung out he will pace or trot.

They are great horses though, worth persevering! Join Standardbreds in the UK on Facebook, it’s a good resource.

What does pace feel like? Just so I can watch out for it! I’m guessing the washing machine gait is tranter.

 

[JGC]

There's a lot of trotters here in France - one of the other liveries did about six months cantering only on the lunge not under saddle to be able to get the canter to "click"! Her horse canters really well but apparently it feels like you're riding a washing machine

 

[SEL]

What does pace feel like? Just so I can watch out for it! I’m guessing the washing machine gait is tranter.

Pacing is the trot where both legs on the same side move together instead of across the diagonal. I gave up rising trot because it felt like I was being pushed from side to side - but actually quite comfy

One of the pacers I taught to canter used to leap all 4 legs off the ground if you asked him to canter. It was like he couldn't work out how to go from trot to canter but if he jumped in the air then he could reorganise his legs! One of the others never really got it and just used to pace at speed.

 

[maya2008]

Thanks all! I’ve now been down a YouTube rabbit hole with the aid of the terminology on here and educated myself some more.

 

[Cortez]

Ah, the wonderful trollop (AKA trantering)! Some breeds are quite literally not programed for canter, notably traditionally driving horses such as trotters, friesians, cobs, and some gaited breeds. It's a labour of love to help them sort the legs and sequences out, and some never truly get it.

 

[holeymoley]

I wonder if my youngster will come up with something strange. He was put in to a harness as a yearling. Poor wee soul. I have videos of him, he doesn't have a clue what's being asked. Watching him in the field he seems to almost do a sort of pace/walk. He can easily move both sides forward at the one time but it's not at the speed of a trot/fast pace...

My older one done something that felt amazing a few years ago. He was really wound up as while out hacking he could hear people shouting and whistling. Turns out they lost a dog. I have no idea what he was doing, possibly pacing? But it was incredibly comfy and seemed to just go from side to side but at a trot/jog speed.

 

[exracehorse]

I have a cob x trotter. His canter when schooling is horrendous. Bsck legs can go together for four or five strides. He’s very strong too and gets stressed. Especially on a circle. Out on a hack he’s much much better. He can sort out his own rhythm. And is a point and shoot at jumping. Especially XC. After 6 years of owning him. He’s never going to change.

 

[Patterdale]

What does pace feel like? Just so I can watch out for it! I’m guessing the washing machine gait is tranter.

Like they’ve got a flat tyre, or one of the wheels has fallen off

 

[maya2008]

I have a cob x trotter. His canter when schooling is horrendous. Bsck legs can go together for four or five strides. He’s very strong too and gets stressed. Especially on a circle. Out on a hack he’s much much better. He can sort out his own rhythm. And is a point and shoot at jumping. Especially XC. After 6 years of owning him. He’s never going to change.

A friend of mine had a larger horse with a similar canter years ago. She reminded me last weekend that hers had jumped like a stag, so maybe there is hope for mine!

Like they’ve got a flat tyre, or one of the wheels has fallen off

Haven’t found that button then, it’s level even if it feels really weird!

 

[Patterdale]

I would get someone to film it maybe.

 

[Caol Ila]

My mare could canter with the front legs and trot with the rear ones.

How are you meant to ride a normal 3 beat canter after 21 years of that?

 

[tristars]

I think going up hill is good to keep it under control, not too fast, my trotter travelled at 1000 miles per hour when first broken, so initially
⁷
I was White scared to aske for canter, however trot settled nicely so sorted canter, I do jump him on the lunge so he gets to pick up the right lead and practice canter hImself he had a very odd. canter to start with but general schooling is getting him there

 

[maya2008]

Sort of mixed up the tips today - got a nice balanced trot, gave the canter aid, then gave her some time to sort her legs out. She ran a few steps before dropping into canter, whereupon I sent that forwards so she couldn’t curl up and do the weird thing behind. We got a 3 beat canter! It wasn’t smooth or perfect, but her legs were definitely cantering.

I was slightly amused that the green ponies behind me got into canter no trouble but had to do some leg rearranging to find trot again…whereas we were the complete opposite! For us, coming OUT of canter was a one second wonder, straight into a balanced trot!

 

[Cortez]

Sort of mixed up the tips today - got a nice balanced trot, gave the canter aid, then gave her some time to sort her legs out. She ran a few steps before dropping into canter, whereupon I sent that forwards so she couldn’t curl up and do the weird thing behind. We got a 3 beat canter! It wasn’t smooth or perfect, but her legs were definitely cantering.

I was slightly amused that the green ponies behind me got into canter no trouble but had to do some leg rearranging to find trot again…whereas we were the complete opposite! For us, coming OUT of canter was a one second wonder, straight into a balanced trot!

It may help to do the transition from walk, less tangling of the neural pathways. Same downwards, so canter to walk. It's a combination of balance and certain types of horses literally not having the neural wiring to get their legs in the right order (there's some research on this, somewhere).

 

[Nicnac]

It may help to do the transition from walk, less tangling of the neural pathways. Same downwards, so canter to walk. It's a combination of balance and certain types of horses literally not having the neural wiring to get their legs in the right order (there's some research on this, somewhere).

My Friesian ended up with canter being her best gait. I overworked it and lost the trot so then had to go back to the drawing board. Yes agree walk to canter and back down really helped establish the canter and then reestablish the trot!

 

[maya2008]

It may help to do the transition from walk, less tangling of the neural pathways. Same downwards, so canter to walk. It's a combination of balance and certain types of horses literally not having the neural wiring to get their legs in the right order (there's some research on this, somewhere).

I don’t think we’re fit enough yet but did see that recommended in the research I did also. We’ve done all the walking and worked up the trotting until we’re trotting all the bits that can be trotted on the hacks. Just doing a couple of little canters now each ride, slowly increasing in length. So a quarter of a field at a time is more than enough right now. That’s not fit enough for walk to canter yet, is it?

 

[Cortez]

I don’t think we’re fit enough yet but did see that recommended in the research I did also. We’ve done all the walking and worked up the trotting until we’re trotting all the bits that can be trotted on the hacks. Just doing a couple of little canters now each ride, slowly increasing in length. So a quarter of a field at a time is more than enough right now. That’s not fit enough for walk to canter yet, is it?

Horses can do walk canter transitions from the day they're born, they don't need any special fitness to do it. It's usually the riders who can't do it.

 

[maya2008]

Horses can do walk canter transitions from the day they're born, they don't need any special fitness to do it. It's usually the riders who can't do it.

It was banged into me by an instructor at some point that they had to be good at direct transitions and reasonably fit before you started doing halt-trot, walk-canter and vice versa. I do agree they merrily do halt-gallop in the field (and when spooking!). Just never really thought through the logic of that obviously!

 

[Cortez]

It was banged into me by an instructor at some point that they had to be good at direct transitions and reasonably fit before you started doing halt-trot, walk-canter and vice versa. I do agree they merrily do halt-gallop in the field (and when spooking!). Just never really thought through the logic of that obviously!

Obviously you don't do it endlessly, but a couple of transitions and short canters are not going to be overly taxing. The greatest problem is balance.