What would you do? - schooling.

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lisa_lou

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My 7yr old mares head seems to explode after any canter work whilst schooling and i am finding it impossible to get her back listening to me after any cantering no matter how long or short the canter is.
She will work nicely in a good rythm and outline in walk and trot, i do lots of excersises in walk and trot, circles, serpentines, figures of 8 etc then she will canter nicely but as soon as i want her to come back to trot she just pulls loads, puts her head high and tries to run getting faster and faster. Ive tried having long reins and not interrupting but she just goes round like a giraffe, falling in on circles, not bending and totally not listening just getting faster, if i have short reins i have to constantly ask for half halts to bring her back but as soon as i soften hands again she speeds up and puts the head up.
Should i keep up trying with the canter work or just give up and concentrate on getting the walk and trot better? Any advice muchly appreciated as i cannot afford lessons
 
I would do the bare minimum of walk and trot to warm up and then focus on your canter for a few sessions. My horse used to be like this as it was easier to focus on the things he was doing well in :)

Then once youve got his canter established a bit more i would then work on canter first within your session and then walk and trot.

Someone may be able to advise you better but It definitely worked with my horse. His canter is now his best pace!
 
Not much of an idea, but would canter poles help? it may slow her down and she would have to keep her head down to see where they are? also if you canter on a smallish circle it would be easier to control her(after lots of trot work and flexing)
 
I tried 5 canter poles in a line today as i thought it might make her think but she saw the poles and tried tanking in, repeated it about 10 times and she still kept pulling me to go faster, She just seems to think canter work and jumping/ polework is way too exciting and forgets that i am (or should be!!) the boss.
I really want to event her nxt year but the dressage part is seriously lacking and she couldnt even do a prelim at the mo cos of the canter.
 
Horses24-7 said:
I would do the bare minimum of walk and trot to warm up and then focus on your canter for a few sessions. My horse used to be like this as it was easier to focus on the things he was doing well in :)

Then once youve got his canter established a bit more i would then work on canter first within your session and then walk and trot.

Someone may be able to advise you better but It definitely worked with my horse. His canter is now his best pace!
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^^This^^

My horse sounds just like yours. Canter seems to be such a big deal that after a canter (and during canter) he just runs out the front door. I had always stuck to what he was good at, and what felt nice (the walk and trot) and the canter got left way behind!! It got to the point where canter was that unpredictable and uncomfortable, that I just didn't want to do it anymore, and kept on with the paces I enjoyed :o

So, my instructor advised doing more and more work on canter every ride, to make it "the norm".

So for now, we spend loads and loads of time cantering in our schooling sessions, and slowly but surely, he is becoming more and more sane! It's still a little racey at times, but he's getting better :rolleyes:

Good luck, and stick with it!
 
canter poles where the canter poles get shorter so morse collected you could also do small bounces a line of them and then bring her back to a walk rather then trot.

then do lots of transitions canter 3 strides back to walk then walk to trot then trot to walk so she doesnt anticipate the canter do half a 20m circle in canter half trot half canter half trot and so on.

if she leans on you in the canter drop your reins then pick back up to let her know she cant lean and has to carry herself without racing off - she probably just finds it easier to canter then work properly in a trot so you need to keep her mind thinking :) good luck
 
Horses24-7 said:
I would do the bare minimum of walk and trot to warm up and then focus on your canter for a few sessions. My horse used to be like this as it was easier to focus on the things he was doing well in :)

Then once youve got his canter established a bit more i would then work on canter first within your session and then walk and trot.

Someone may be able to advise you better but It definitely worked with my horse. His canter is now his best pace!
Click to expand...

This ^^^^^
I had similar issue's with my mare years ago and my instructor recommend something simmilar, when I first got on, I literally walked/trotted for 5min, then cantered for about 45min, even when she tried to trot I kept her in canter, don't get me wrong, I was absolutley knackered but after a couple of weeks her canter had settled down and she also seemed to realise that wasting energy on being a muppet didn't work out.
What does your instructor think/say?
 
Canter trot transitions aim for 4 strides trot 4 strides canter, she is simply not listening and if you can get anywhere near this ( even if you gave to take a tug you should be able to start improving the pace but until she's listening and understanding your aids you'll get no where. Reward everything that is near to what u want with a pat / good girl etc and over a week or two you should see some improvement...
 
blitznbobs said:
Canter trot transitions aim for 4 strides trot 4 strides canter, she is simply not listening and if you can get anywhere near this ( even if you gave to take a tug you should be able to start improving the pace but until she's listening and understanding your aids you'll get no where. Reward everything that is near to what u want with a pat / good girl etc and over a week or two you should see some improvement...
Click to expand...

I did this with one of mine (didnt actually count the strides though) kept on a circle - half circle trot - half canter- just kept going - in the beginning it was horrendous - she would disunite - start to anticipate - become lathered and over a few weeks she settled. Sometime I would be so out of breath from not breathing I came back to walk for a few strides and then picked up again.
 
Thank you everyone for your comments, i really appreciate them. I will certainly work more on the canter now and see how she gets on. Thanks again.
 
My mare does this and after canter i used to have to halt her and start up walk/trot again from a calmer start. this helped but then when i need to continue with trot i had to put up with some silly behaviour but kept the leg on and let her move forwards until she gave up and relaxed, the time span between canter and relaxing decreased and now she is fine
 
yes i would continue to work on the canter, but maybe a couple of lessons with a good instuctor would help with the next year goal of eventing. new eyes on the ground highlights many isues, and is money well spent.
 
also could be she is unbalanced in the canter and therefore can't help but run, and then run faster.

you could also lunge her to get her balance more in the canter.

As others have said just keep going it will get better. my lad did the same, it was like a wall of death sometimes, remember to push her forward into the contact though, it can be so tempting when they are already going fast not to put enough leg on BUT if she hasn't got her legs under her she will run even more to try and catch up
 
This thread has been really useful to me as I have the same issue with my 6 year old. I've been avoiding the canter as it's such a load of work (telling myself that I'm perfecting her trot first) but knowing that I should be working on it more, not less.

I shall use this thread as the kick in the pants I need to get to work on canter. :)
 
I was really cross with myself as he had a lovely canter when I got him and I had some lessons with an instructor that kept me in trot on a 20m circle week after week, then when I move on to his canter it was shocking! Needless to say I do not use that instructor anymore (we had to use YO and weren't allowed outside ones on the yard:( ) within a few sessions my new one had us sorted!

The main thing she taught me was to not lose my outside contact, I seemed to loosen my outside rein in canter for some reason? Which caused him to fall out of his outside shoulder through corners. We did loads of counter canter for his balance and half loops off the track. Worked wonders!

I will have a think of other things we did to get us going again :)
 
A very helpful thread! Thank you OP :D

Our canter has gone to pot. It's coming back with doing it more often, but she too gets a bit frantic after the first canter (it can get quite kn*ckering!). Will give also try everyone's suggestions.

One thing we were told was to do ten metre circles at different point, i.e. at A, C, B, E, to try and reduce the anticipation (we had two corners which Dizz had decided were The Canter Corners!), we were also told to try the x number of strides canter then x number of strides trot, and not to let the horse run on into the canter (a new failing of ours).

It can get a bit scary (wall of death speeds, falling out through the shoulder, cutting corners at the last minute, steering going to pot), but perseverance does get you there. I have to admit to having put a standing martingale on for a few sessions - she'll give a couple of tugs then accept it, which is far better than her ears up my nostrils :cool:

Just thinking about it... I don't know what you're like but if you're anything like me, do it daily. Dizz kicked herself on the knee so has had nearly a week off (big knee), and now I'm back to slightly Eeek! thoughts. I know I'll canter this evening, but m'nerves are back a bit. I have the advantage that I can ask D1 to do the canter work for me (although then I feel like I've bottled it and get mad at myself :rolleyes:).

I don't know your circs, but if you can start getting out to basic dressage comps that seems to help mentally, or it is for me. We're at walk/trot level due to the canter (wouldn't stay in the arena with me at the moment!), but doing a Prelim at the weekend as no Intros at the venue; we'll trot the canter sections. It's, for us, all about just doing it.

Sorry! Gone on an awful lot :eek::o:rolleyes:
 
I'd a similar problem with my 6 y/o, so I stopped cantering completely, just walked and trotted. After a few days I introduced a canter at the end of the session, and when we came back to trot I walked around on a long rein till he calmed down, changed the rein and went again. I kept that regime up for a while and eventually he got the message that canter didn't mean head-up-charge!!!!!!! and now he's cantering nicely :)
 
I have watched this thread with interest and there are some good suggestions here!
(My horse is like yours Lisa_Lou, lovely soft rhythmical trot, walk is nice and free.. her canter is beautiful, her best pace, but after cantering her, bringing her back to trot is just a NIGHTMARE completely different horse!!)
 
I think you need to examine whether she is a bit green and unbalanced and genuinely finding it a bit exciting or whether she is being rude and tanking because tanking is easier than working properly.

If she is green and unbalanced and excited then there is nothing wrong with going back to the trot for a few weeks making sure you are balanced correctly and happy before addressing the canter and then spending some time doing lots of canter so it is not as exciting. Doing canter early in the session so that you have it over and done with is also good, especially as it gives you plenty of time to put things back together afterwards. Make sure that she isn't anticipating (so work some sitting trot too and changes of bend etc) and make sure that she is nice and balanced into the transition. Let her find her balance in the canter but bring her back if she starts to get too on the forehand and ask again when you have rebalanced. I have found with my youngster that bringing her back to walk and then just doing a tiny bit of trot before the transition to canter is best.

If on the otherhand she is being rude and is capable, work lots of circles and transitions. Work walk to canter then canter to walk to get her sitting and listening. If she runs through your hand correct her immediately. With a big rude horse that used to get very tank like in canter i used to do walk to canter canter to walk with just a few strides of each and if she ran through my hand in the downwards transition she would be halted and backed up. Worked a treat to get her "together" but I wouldn't put this much pressure on a young or green horse.
 
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