Cantering Problems

[RaetheJumper]

Hi I'm new to new rider :D

It's helped me loads so far so thanks so much to everyone out there! :)


I have problems when I canter, I'm alright, but the horse I ride is called Rae.
She's lazy on flatwork, so my instructor gives me a stick for her. When she's trotting, I ask for canter but she just trots faster round every corner. I tap her with the stick behind my leg, but after I do that, she goes into canter but I loose balance from tapping her, and pull on the reins for balance. Then, she trots.
It's really affecting my riding as I'm getting moved down, and I can't move on to jumping etc - which is what Rae (according to my friends at the barn) is real good at.

I'd real appreciate any help or advice :)
Thanks!
Sophie xx

[teddypony]

hmmmm, not too sure. When you ask for canter make sure you weight is down in the saddle and the horse is going forward nicely in trot. Are you balanced in trot? If she is lazy you could ask to work on lots of transitions, this wont help with balance in canter but riding walk to trot, trot to walk could help to wake up the horse and therefore make it more responsive when you do ask for a canter. Otherwise maybe see if you can have a go on a different horse to get your confidence back? Hope your canter improves:)

[Lora]

like the transitions but also you can practice sitting trot in strides. Rise three, sit two.. then sit three, four, etc. The rising makes sure they don't putter out, the sitting works on your balance. While doing that, put your hands down in front of saddle pad and just hold them there, concentrate on not letting them lift. This can also be done without stirrups to increase balance.

I personally would work on this stuff before continuing so the horse doesn't start to avoid cantering with you. That jerk on that mouth invites trainign problems later.

[*toHorse&Away*]

Agree with teddypony.
Some RS horses will just run on in trot and motorbike the corners so that its virtually impossible to get them into canter and if you are relativiely novice yourself you compound the situation by getting unbalanced when you try ot use the stick.
So as above - lots of transtions to get the horse listenning and engaging the hind quarters and when you ask for canter ask in a corner from steady balanced trot - you don't need to be going fast to get a canter.
Esier said than done but don't get frustrated as it makes things worse!

Good luck :)

[RaetheJumper]

"I have problems when I canter, I'm alright, but the horse I ride is called Rae.
"
This is upposed to say "I have problems when I canter. I'm alright-ish- on other horses, but not on the horse I ride, called Rae." I was talking to someone on the phone while typing.. :$

Thanks so much guys! I'll be sure to try the transitions next time I go! :)
I'm actually pretty good in trot, we ride alot without stirrups to improve balance.

I'll see how it goes next time I ride her.
Thankyou so much for your help! I'll post what we were like when I rode her. :D

[~*sugarlump*~]

i would really work on balance. work without stirrups, work without reins helps alot too.
make sure your aids for going into canter are correct, sitting trot then inside leg on girth outside leg behind girth. don't forget to use your voice too, a firm *canter* can make alot of horses go for it. keep your trot controlled yet forward with impulsion, but not *motorbiking*. if you have a forward trot then canter will be alot easier than if the horse is dragging itself along.

really work on transitions-walk trot, trot walk, halt trot, trot halt.
hope this helps:)

[Bubbles1989]

If you're loosing your balance when you use the whip then why not hold onto the saddle with your other hand while you use it? Then when you've got your hands back in the right place let go and you shouldn't be off balance?
I used to never have a good balance after using the whip but now i just do it without thinking and i forget im riding one handed for that second!

Sorry can't help with the transitions as i used to ride a horse that refused to canter and he's stopped being ridden by anyone now!

[gangle_creature]

hold the saddle, not use the reins for balance!

[Berry]

If you are losing balance when you use the stick, you could try tapping the horse on the shoulder instead of behind your leg. This means you don't have to take your hands off the reins - when I learnt to canter at an RS I found this a lot easier.

[lauren123]

I would say that when you ask for canter in the corner do as you nomally doi and do sitting trot then when you tap her with the whip it should be easier to keep your balance while in canter

[Cat1980]

Do you have a handle on the saddle? If not could you attach a strap? I had this problem and holding the reigns loose as well as the handle meant that when i lost balance i was not pulling on the bit making him go back into trot. Try sitting trot for 3/4 along the long aside of the school then ask for canter just before the corner. Make sure you dont lean forward which is easy done as you will put weight on his shoulders preventing him being on the correct leg. Try keeping contact with the inside reign and give him the outside reign. Just a few things that I tried and they worked. Every horse is diff tho!

[RaetheJumper]

Well, I was dying to try out all the tips, but I was on the much bigger, and much more forward going (that meant no taps with the whip every five seconds were needed :D), Tripper.

Thanks again for the tips guys, and I tried out most of them (even though I didn't need a whip). But holding the saddle and neck strap really helped :D

[PurpleHammer]

I have problems when I canter...When she's trotting, I ask for canter but she just trots faster round every corner. I tap her with the stick behind my leg, but after I do that, she goes into canter but I loose balance from tapping her, and pull on the reins for balance. Then, she trots.


Hope I'm not too late to contribute to this thread, but I had a couple ideas that might help you. (First, talk with your instructor and see if any of these might help your situation.)
1. Try using the whip on the horse's shoulder instead of behind your leg. This way, you won't have to remove either hand from the reins.
2. Using the reins for balance isn't really a good idea at any gait - imagine that scenario from the horse's point of view, especially how it affects it's mouth! Your balance comes from your SEAT, not your hands. So, try to improve your balance without relying on your hands by gaining more of an independent seat at walk and trot first. There are a couple of ways to do this. First, try to ride with one hand on the reins. Practice moving around yet remaining balanced, like switching the reins from one hand to the other, or moving your free arm up and down (such as putting behind your back or touching your head) smoothly at a trot. (This sounds easy, but doing it smoothly requires good balance!) After you've mastered THAT, try working without reins completely, especially at the different positions (rising, sitting, jump position) at the trot. (You might consider asking your instructor to put you on a lounge line for that.)
3. Try to not lean too far forward when you're trotting & asking for the canter, even when using a stick. This puts the horse off-balance and she'll wind up trotting too fast. When the trot is too fast, just like the trot being too slow, the harder it is for the horse to go into a smooth canter (which makes it harder for you to balance at the canter).
4. Have you tried asking for a canter from a walk instead of a trot? I know for me, this really helped when I was first learning to canter.
5. Hold on to the horse's mane with your other hand when using the stick.
6. What about going on a lounge line to learn to canter? That way, your instructor is the one in charge (or, if you still have the reins, can assist you) of what gait your horse is at. Plus, this has the added benefit that you can work on YOU learning how to get your horse to canter and how it feels without having to deal with where the horse is going or how fast it is going all by yourself.

I hope things are going better for you (or will soon) with this. Good luck!


~PurpleHammer~

[gangle_creature]

Hope I'm not too late to contribute to this thread, but I had a couple ideas that might help you. (First, talk with your instructor and see if any of these might help your situation.)
1. Try using the whip on the horse's shoulder instead of behind your leg. This way, you won't have to remove either hand from the reins.


~PurpleHammer~



Dont use the whip on the shoulder, it gives all the wrong signals, you give a horse a smack on the shoulder if he does something wrong, not to make him go faster.

[Tuff_up]

you need to wake the horse up and ditch the whip. no whips or spurrs. the thing is with horses if they don't want to do it they wont (either that mean throw you off, just plodd ect). when you use certain articicial aids the horse becomes dependant on it. example this horse i used to ride hated going faster than a plodd jog(slower than a trot but in the same rythm) and at first he would go with enough pressure from your heel but eventually he got used to the kicking feeling so the owner switched to spurrs again it worked for a while but then they had to switch to a whip and again it worked for awhile but soon enough he grew accustom to that aswell. so really this lady now has a very ****y gelding thats 5 years old and likes to plod unstead of teaching him from the beginning by either waking him up with transitions ect as a 2 yr old. my mare goes way to fast and it took me 10 months to get where i am as a western rider with slow even cadence so what i am telling you is patience your RI probably gave you this horse because YOU COULD canter all the other horses.

for the record i think if you need to improve on special techniques (dressage) go ahead and use artificial aids but they shouldn't be used for mandatory techniques (walk/trot/canter)

[dunrobin_topper]

Im not exactly a beginner but i have been doing alot more flatwork with my rather lazy cob and we have been doing lots of transitions to wake him up!

I have also been helping my friends daughter gain a bit more confidence in canter and she is getting there slowly. I would suggest like the other post to not rely at all on your hands!Get a bit of twine and thread it through the rings on either side of the pommel (maybe not possible on a Riding school horse but you can ask them). This stops you haunching and leaning forwards. also frees up your contact a bit. Ive been getting her to relax and sit up tall and really getting to grip with walk - trot transitions and getting him to listen to her voice as well as her leg aids. When he is livened up a bit we start by doing a canter transiton in the corner then a few strides and then back to walk. I get her to count the strides which helps her breath and relax. Another problem area is her heals. She tends to grip up which stops my cob going forwards!! so again stretching exercises and work without stirrups on the lunge as helped her put more weight down into her heal!

Mostly its a 'stop panicing your doing more work than him!' she tends to try and row him forwards! All in all her postion is more balanced but it takes some time and i think she has improved so much in a matter of weeks!

Good luck

[Nimbus65]

For berry - just as clarity . . . you use a schooling whip behind your leg to reinforce your leg aid, not necessarily to make the horse go faster. It's not the speed of the trot that determines whether a horse will canter, it's the amount of energy in the trot, whether the horse has fallen onto its forehand or is pushing from behind, where the rider's weight is and what the rider is doing with his or her hands.

If you as the rider are perched forwards (as alot of us are when we are first learning to canter, particularly on a horse that isn't particularly forward going), you are loading the horse's shoulder and making it difficult for the horse to canter . . . usual result here is that the horse just trots really fast because it is out of balance.

Remember that horses learn to respond to cues or aids . . . the aid for canter on most RS horses is inside leg on the girth and outside leg slightly behind to ask the horse to bring its outside hind leg up and underneath as the first canter stride. The aid for "oi, listen to my leg or more energy please" is a tickle or flick by your heel . . . a slap on the shoulder may mean nothing at all or something completely different like "stop falling in or out" but it doesn't tell the average RS horse to speed up or use more energy and it certainly doesn't ask the horse for a transition to canter.

Rae - I agree with the others that leaning back, sitting deep in the saddle and holding onto the saddle so you don't catch the horse in the mouth will really help with your canter transitions and I see that you've had the chance to try and had some success so congrats!

N

[RaetheJumper]

Thanks so much guys!

I talked to my instructor, and riding without stirrups really helped the most..

I am much more balanced when I give them a tap, and my cantering problems are /almost/ sorted :D I still need a little work on turning them etc, but I'm really getting there.. - it's just learning to control and keep 'right' while holding the whip. but yeah it's much better :)


Thanks sooo much for all your help!!! :D

[Crazyhorse]

Haven't read all the replies, but there has been some good advice there. Also, have you tried using a dressage whip, as you would not have to let go of the reins to use it.

[aussieannie]

Practice the balance exercies on a ball first. establish your balance then get back on your horse. If you feel safe without stiruups add in closing your eyes for shorts periods. this will align your posture better. Blind people have good posture and balance.
Try it cheers AA