Help we only canter right!!

[Drummers mum]

If you have read my other posts you will know I have been trying very hard to teach Drummer to canter and we are getting there!

But now I can only get him to take off on the right leg!! Even if I turn him tight left and kick hard inside leg, he still goes off on his right leg.

And he can canter along with his nose still pointing left, its quite mad to see him looking at you whilst cantering forward!!:D :(

[wildponies]

You have to make sure your horse is 'bending' to the inside. Keep your outside rein quite tight to stop your horse running through and open up your inside rein. Make sure your trot is balanced and collected and that you're riding with your seat. I was experiencing the same problem today on a gelding who was intent on bending towards the outside and would only pick up the correct lead on one rein. I was advised to turn into the inner track on the 'short side' of the arena and leg yield out onto the track (in trot), as soon as we hit the track i asked for canter keeping the bend and applying pressure with my inside leg only and shortening up the inside rein to encourage a bend in the right direction and it worked.

Hope this makes sense! I had never thought about leg yielding before to try to establish the correct lead but it really did work today so i'd reccomend it.

[galadriel]

Will he pick up both leads on the lunge? When he's out playing in the field?

[Drummers mum]

I can't get him to canter on the lunge he just bucks and gets really silly and I fear for my life!! Will watch in the field but I recon the answer is probably yes as he looks effortless when hes playing!

Have found someone AT LAST to come and give me a few lessons, hopefully coming week after next as shes teaching at pony camp next week.:D

[cvb]

there's this odd thing that can happen that unless you are really getting 'true' bend, turning a horse in the correct direction can make it more likely they will take counter canter.

because - e.g. left canter - starts with the outside hind, then diagonal pair, then inside fore.

Now if you turn head and neck to left, you may get bum swinging out, which means it is difficult to start with off hind, and they will strike off with near hind instead.

So - if you have a horse that is showing some one-sided-ness, you need to work on (a) making him equally comfy on both sides and (b) making it easy for him to strike off with right hind (for left canter).

As well as the suggestions above, you can also try asking him to go slightly 'quarters in' - but this may be hard for him anyway ? (I used this with my mare - she is laterally very supple but had problems with co-ordination).

[notpoodle]

ah, that sounds familiar :) angel is ok on the right rein, too, but still a bit of a disaster area on the left rein - and not just in canter, just going round the school's corners on the left rein is tricky, as she keeps bending outwards and it is rather difficult to get any sort of inward bend on her on the left rein (you keep the outside rein on too much she'll bend outwards and go sideways, not enough outside rein and she'll try to just wander into the middle of the school ....).

i guess if you keep practising on the left rein, and not just the canter but bending on the left rein in general, that should hopefully help :)

julia
x

[Drummers mum]

Thanks everyone.

Notpoodle: I also have more problems with bending left than right. Sometimes when we are trotting and turn left he just stops!! Its like he can't cope with the bend and i really have to push him on.

cvb: thats really interesting I recon that could be some of our problem. I shall work on it today!!

[Volvic]

Sky has problems with left canter. We think its because she slipped her right stifle as a foal and has had a tendon injury on her right fore. My instructor said that it could be more difficult for her to canter on the left rein than the right (even though her walk & trot work is much better on the left than the right) due to these injuries.

When we first started having lessons, we could hardly ever get the correct leg in canter, but the more work we've done, the better she's become, so now she's doing nice balanced (well near enough!) transitions into canter on both reins & we're getting the correct leg the majority of the time :D (this is a big thing for us!)

I think it will probably be a case of practising - the left canter will eventually come. Is Drummer fit at the moment? If not, he will probably find it more difficult to get the correct leading leg.

Good luck :D

[notpoodle]

@drummers mum: sounds exactly like angel on the left rein :) at the moment i'm doing lots of random circles in various sizes with her on the left rein which seems to help a little. or you could go round doing a little circle in each corner of the school ...

[Drummers mum]

Circles, forever going round in circles!! Makes me dizzy.

Serpentines are good too, and sometimes I go in the jumping paddock and meander in and out of the jumps, just makes things more interesting!!

I'm boring myself talking about it, think I might go on a hack today.:D Thats if I can find someone to go with me, haven't been alone yet, bit scary!!:eek:

[notpoodle]

yeah forgot to mention the serpentines :) you could also stick a gew cones up and weave round them to make it more 'interesting'. or try asking for canter on the left when out on a hack ...

julia
x

[Drummers mum]

Sorry Volvic missed you out! No offense:)

Hes not very fit at all, we are working on that too!!

Interesting what you said about injury, because as a baby Drummer was caught in barbed wire, he has a massive scar down the front/ inside of the cannon bone on his left hind leg, its all lumpy. Bless!:rolleyes:

Sorry, the point being, although the vet says no problems he could be stiffer somewhere because of it, or over compensating?!