wont canter on left leg!

[kateknights]

Hi everyone, my new horse just wont canter on the left leg! what can I do to get her to dot his, her back is good and tack too as have had this all checked.
Is there anything I can do to help her?
Thanks guys
Kate x.

 

[BroadfordQueen]

i have the same problem with my youngster, but i know the problem lies because of his lack of left bend. Outside leg behind the girth, inside leg on the girth (agh how many times have i heard that experession lol!) and open your inside hand slightly. try half halting before asking to canter, ask on a corner, make sure your mares either straight or bending to the inside, not the outside. hope that helps

 

[Kelly1982]

What about putting a pole down in the corner of the school and ask for canter over this.

You have to make sure your consistant with you aids and try and feel when she is about to strike off wrong to stop her from striking off before she does it then ask again. If she does strike off wrong then bring her back to trot immediatly and ask again praising her with your voice once she has done it correctly.

It may be that she is still slightly unbalanced, we had this problem with our mare when we got her as she had always been allowed to strike off on her left leg by a novice rider.

We also did lots of lunging with her and she rarley strikes off wrong now.

Hope that helps

 

[kateknights]

Thanks you two, I will try it all.
Fingers crossed...

 

[acolvine]

Does she strike with the correct canter lead when lunging on the left rein?

Good idea with the pole as a guide when doing the transition. Make sure your trot is rythmical and you are relaxed before asking for the transition so your horse has time to think about what you are asking and where his/her feet need to be.
You could also try some walk to canter transitions as it takes out the speed element prior to change and gives you both time to think and coordinate.
I'm sure your instructor will have plenty of ideas if you are still having problems. Good luck!

 

[Super_Kat]

My horse is a bugger to get left canter on aswell. I'm positive the right side of her pelvis has dropped and therefore I think she finds it hard to strike off on the right hind and achieve left canter. I think it would be worth having her pelvis looked at just to give you piece of mind if nothing else.

 

[Kelly1982]

[ QUOTE ]
You could also try some walk to canter transitions

[/ QUOTE ]

Our mare actually finds this a lot easier and strikes off right every single time this way!!!

I still do trot to canter as well though so she learns both ways but you could try this to start off with if she finds it easier that way.

And also agree that you need to make sure you are in a nice rythym (sp) before you ask and try not to let her run into it.

If she strikes off wrong then make sure you get the rythym (sp) back before asking again.

 

[4whitesocks]

spent 3 months teaching my boy this - he is totally one-sided and it was a drama! Mainly because he knew he was getting it wrong and got stressed about it, head in the air.....

we actually ended up cheating...tried lots of bending, circles, transitions - lots of leg yielding (which does help - leg yield leg yield leg yield ask for canter....)

in the end a grand prix dressage instructor told me (unofficially!!) to try a cheat - on the corner turn his head out rather than in as you would naturally do - then ask for canter - because he's unbalanced he falls onto the right lead.... I know it's the wrong way to do it but what happend was that after a couple of weeks he realised what we were asking him to do and now almost every time he gets it right - but we have spent a lot of time working on his bending

This weekend we cracked walk to canter transitions on both reins and he got it right 4 times out of 5 so there is light at the end of the tunnel!!!