cantering problems when hacking and schooling, small

[floppy]

I ride a friends Halfinger and it's mainly used for driving and my friend use to have riding lessons with it but her 3 kids prevents her from travelling for her lessons and the rest of the time it is hacked out. I don't have the ability to have lessons with the horse because of the times that I am able to ride and also I dont not have a licence to aloow me to tow a trailer as the nearest riding school is 40mins away. we have a few little dilemmas with this darling mare! :)

The horse is quite safe when riding out but when we ride out alone and it sees another horse in the distance going faster than walk it automatically gears up and tries to canter to the other horse. Luckily where I hack out there is alot of grassland so I can easily bring the horse round into a circle making is gradually smaller until it stops and then I make the horse stand still until the other horse is closer and walks past us and then the horse walks on happily as if nothing has happened. My friend has the same problem when she hacks the horse out and she does the same as I do to stop it. IS there something else we can do to try and prevent the horse galloping off in the first place?

Also, the sight of another horse is the only time the horse will ever strike off happily into a canter! if you try and ride it in trot and then request it to canter it wont, it completely ingnores your aids and after ALOT of asking and then it will grant you a few paces of canter and go straight back to walk..Any suggestions to make it more responsive? (it is very lazy to ride out alone but there isnt the posibility that there is always another horse to ride out with) I use to have probelms with the hrose being extremely lazy when it came to trotting too, it would trot a few strides and then pull its head down and stop. so I started to make it trot a few paces and do a transition to walk and then after a few strides ask it to trot and now If i feel the hrose beginning to slow i make sure i apply my legs a little bit more and the horse carries on happily. So one probelm has been cured...just the rest we slowly need to solve!

Also, I regulary ride in my friends manege because the horse isn't very good at general schooling work. I usually ride it for about 20 minutes in the arena and spend alot of the time doing simple transitions from walk to trot doing circles and sepertines to keep it a bit more interesting. I have tried to canter but its very difficult to get the horse to canter it would prefer to keep trotting. Can you suggest anything for this? (my friend has watched me ride the horse in the arena and has said that the horse is more lively when I ride it compared to when she rides it and she can never get it to canter either!)

I thought originally the problem was me, but as my friend has problems with it too and a few other people have tried too and failed.

However if you ride out with other horses it doesnt take much to ask the horse to canter!
We know that general riding and hacking isnt the horses idea of fun because as soon as you attach it to a cart it loves it and is always full of energy. But of course my friend doesnthave time everyday to take the horse out in the cart so in the meantime it needs to be exercised daily and also she wants to enjoy the hrose for hackign and light shcoolign too. The main problem seems to be when the horse is ridden without company but as i said before you can't always guarantee someone elses will be able to ride with me.
I would appreciate any help or info or suggestions deeply! :)

[floppy]

hehe It took me quite a while to decide as to where i should have posted the above message...it was a choice between training the hrose or training the rider :)

[Outrider]

If you have access to a round pen, I would work on gait transitions there first on the ground, both on the lunge line and off. If necessary, have your friend come up fast behind the horse (if he doesn't kick) with a stock whip to get him to move up to canter and to keep him there. Make him change gaits at your request and get after him if he changes on his own. Put him back in the gait you want and make him stay in it until you want to change. After that, do it in saddle with you still on the ground, both on and off the lunge line. Then graduate to riding. Use strong leg aids and possibly either spurs and/or a crop to keep him focused and changing into a canter and staying there. Happy Trails!

[Sarah]

hello!

Is the horse kept turned out with other horses? If not she could be lonely and that is why he wants to join others.

bye!

[floppy]

yes the horse is kept out alot of the time during the day and has a friend that she goes out with in the fields so i dont think she unhappy...I presume she is too used to havign company whilst out ridig because when she is used for driving she is driven with another horse and normally i belive my friend rides out with someone...
but the tips on lunging were good!:)

[floppy]

i forgot to mentiont hat the horse is only 6yrs old

[fionahogg]

The fact that she's only six could have a lot to do with the problem. How long ago was she started, do you know what 'method' has been used and what she has been doing since then? She could be bored or confused in the school and this may be the reason for her being unwilling to go forward. You said you only work her for 20 mins but if she's only been started for a short time she may still find it mentally demanding - remember when you're working with a green horse its not just the body you exercise. She may not have been taught to go forwards from the leg properly - you want her to respond to the lightest leg aid possible, so you could try asking for canter using a slight squeeze, then increase the aid to a stronger squeeze, to a sharp kick (just once)and a tap with a schooling whip. Make sure you are not holding too strong a contact or restricting her forwardness in any way. What bit is she ridden in? Try to keep schooling sessions as short as poss and as varied as poss. You could have someone on the ground with a lunge whip just sending her forwards as you apply the canter aids - don't touch her with it, often just the presence of the whip helps.

Hope this helps!

Fiona

[floppy]

I only ride her for about 20-30mins in the arena because if i ride any longer than that she 'switches' off and gets bored..she is ridden in a hollow mouth snaffle. I have already improved her trot alot she is more forward with it both in and out of the arena. at the moment im am still doing mainly work in walk and trot because she is a bit lazy and i have been introducing her to canter. having said that yesterday she was more responsive than normal when i asked her to canter whilst we were out hacking but i think its mainly to do with the fact she is a bit fizzy at the moment to sudden weather changes. She was bought at 4yrs old and during that time she has been used for driving and hacking and as i said the owner has weekly lessons with her. I dont know how she was trained before that. But i do know the owner has only been riding herself for 2yrs.
But i still believe general riding is more liek a chore to her..because you wouldnt believe how energetic she is once she is in a harness and attached to a coach! :)

[Sharon H]

I think the problem that you're having with the canter probably stems from the fact that she is a driving horse. Unless she has been driven in cross country events where you are allowed to canter, driving horses are not encouraged to canter between the shafts. If asked to go faster they will normally just trot faster rather than break into a canter.If she's been driven as a pair then she will naturally feel a bit insecure when being ridden out alone, don't forget that in harness she will have blinkers on and rely on the voice of the driver to reassure her. Try talking to her and giving her the voice aids as well as the leg and rein aids when you ask her to do something. She may not fully understand what you are asking her to do. Also the fact that she seems a lot more forward going whilst in harness suggests to me that she may find being ridden uncomfortable. Have you had the fit of her saddle checked recently? I think you are going to have to make allowances for the fact that she probably hasn't had enough schooling as a riding horse to completely understand everything, she's only six after all. I would treat her like a youngster who has only just been briken and start again from the beginning. How does she go if you long rein her?

[floppy]

I have never long reined before so I am not really in a position to do it. Her saddle and everything has been checked. The owner wanted to orginally ride her with a western saddle so we tried one from western saddle maker and the horse detested it!But yes, your response Sharon has just made me realise somehting i wasnt thinking before about her being a driving horse and always being paired up . She does drive alone too. ITs because i have never been out driving with her myself that i simply didnt think of such reasons. I have taken her back to basics and as she prefers to ride out that in the arena im trying to make her more responisve to my leg aids whilst riding out and once i have acheive it whilst hacking then i will try in the arena...i did this for her trottingand it has improved vastly! and i always use voice commands along with my leg aids for the different gaits..in fact i dont think there is a time when im not talking with her :)
But thankyou people for all your suggestions and help :)
any more suggestions are welcome! its always nice to read various sensible suggestion to help aid a problem when i dont have the facility to have riding lessons.

[floppy]

Its amazing how much one can learn from these message boards and magazines. And it is also amazing how much knowledge one tends to lack when it actually comes to looking after your first horse/pony. I've been riding for about 16yrs, 10 of which were spend having riding lessons for dressage and jumping,the horses and ponies werent your average riding school poines either...but i never really had much of a hands on about caring for a horse or teaching it to do things...or improve its training...