canter help

[Waikato Valuta]

I've had my boy for abour 3 years and he has come along in leaps and bounds. but we still ahve one big big problem.

I know you'll tell me to work on him trot more but it is getting good and getting boring.

I canter him out of jumps and he is usually good for a few strides before taking off.

It's all head right right up in the air and rush rush rush.

he wont relax and get very uptight to the point of not being about to go back and trot after a small canter. I have tryed doung a one rein canter on the circle but then his bum sticks outand he does little back to front canter pirroets very very fast.

I think he is just stuck in the days of trail ridding and has never been taught

thanks for any help. :D

[showjumperchick]

i would try putting a placing pole approx 4 of your strides after the jump, this will make him look at the pole over the jump and shorten his stride on landing, making him easier to collect. do plenty of gridwork with him, slightly shortening the distances so that he doesnt get long and flat. when he is having to concentrate on shortening all the time he wont be so inclined to rush. if you circle on landing, make it a smooth turn -use your inside hand to guide him rather than pulling him round and keep cantering until you have the rhythm back as you want it. you could also try mking a smooth transition to halt asap after the jump, if you keep doing this he wiil start to anticipate it and slow down of his own accord.

[Shiny McShine]

Well I hate to say it but I think you probably need to work some more on some basics. If you add excitement to your horses work such as jumping then it is really important your basics are sound. In everything you do you your horse should work in a rhythm... can he do so away from the jumps? You can improve your rhythm by working in a natural outline and working on controlling the pace with transitions in and out of walk, trot, canter and halt and within these paces. You want your horse to be at a consistant speed, and to listen to your aids, work on using as subtle aids as possible to slow down, speed up and change pace.

Next you will probably need to work on getting him to relax. There are many exercises you can do... some will work better than others. You should try out as many as possible and find the ones that work best. Some horses relax best out on a hack, others relax best in trot, or canter, some relax after some lateral work, or after doing some trot poles, etc. If you can find some exercises which work best to relax your horse then you can try adding some jumps in again.

When you jump you should insist on and look for rhythm, if he stops listening to your aids and gets tense and flighty then you can go back to your relaxation exercises, the ones that work best.

I hope that is of some help to you... they are only ideas, and remember you may need to look at what exactly is causing him to get tense and rush, is he nervous? Does he have too much energy/ is he getting enough work? Is he in pain? Are you giving mixed signals? etc. If there is something else causing this tension than just excitement then you will need to sort that out first.