Working with former trotters

[Horses 123]

Hello
I was just wondering if anyone has any experience working with ridden former trotters? I have been having a bit of trouble getting one horse's canter steady and balanced, and was wondering if anyone has any tips and tricks? I'll add that the horse is quite forward and can rush at times

 

[mini_b]

not a trotter but I have one that is forward and rushes as he’s not balanced quite the right way yet... received some very good tips!

https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/...-rebalance-canter.802270/page-2#post-14564165

 

[ycbm]

Square trotter or pacer? Pacer is, I reckon, much harder to train to canter.

 

[paddi22]

there's a few threads here on reschooling pacers and trotters that might help. I do it regularly and the best thing I've found is an exercise where you find a steep hill and canter for a few strides, then back to halt, the progress to canter and then back to halt. if you do this repeatedly, it stops them rushes the canter, while the incline of the hill helps them build strength.

people have suggested a few ways to do it on the thread, but what I find helps is tons of canter to walk transitions when im in the school. I also found placing two poles a bit apart and trying to shorten the strides to get more strides between them really helped. what I try to avoid is just letting the horse rush around the school in a wall of death!

I find they are really clever problem solving horses, so working with poles really helps.it seems to help them focus instead of just panic rushing. so I'd set up corridors of 2 parallel poles and work on doing my transitions between them.

apart from that it just takes time, plus really riding from your seat to hold and half halt them in the canter and not using the reins to slow them but really having a strong half halt. it does take time though and some takes years of work before they get a normal canter, so don't despair! some will always just stay buzzy and tense too if they have buzzy personalities. there's some I just know will never settle and do a slow collected canter in an eventing test, but their jumping is so good that I just have to let that bite slide and accept it.

 

[Horses 123]

Thanks for all the replies and the link! Paddi22 I'll try a couple of those tips today and see how it goes, thanks for taking the time to reply
Mini_b I will also follow that link and have a read of it, it looks very useful

 

[FarmOrange]

not a trotter but I have one that is forward and rushes as he’s not balanced quite the right way yet... received some very good tips!

https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/threads/exercises-to-steady-rebalance-canter.802270/page-2/MyAARPMedicare

I also found placing two poles a bit apart and trying to shorten the strides to get more strides between them really helped. what I try to avoid is just letting the horse rush around the school in a wall of death!

I find they are really clever problem solving horses, so working with poles really helps.it seems to help them focus instead of just panic rushing. so I'd set up corridors of 2 parallel poles and work on doing my transitions between them.