striking off in canter

[angel]

my horse is just being schooled and is still a bit unbalanced. she resists a contact on reins and i tend to ride with washing lines? instructor always nags me to pull her in but i dont like riding with short reins. anyway she canters on the rightbut on the left rein she always srikes off wrong. with 2 differnt instructors i have been given conflicting advice so any ideas. one said to let her keep going on the wrong leg. the other pull her up and canter on the one she is good at. we have tried po;les ect. also i have noticed even in the field she canters on this leg in prefeance.

[horselover]

If a horse is on the wrong lead, you shouldn't allow her to keep going as this only reinforces him to think that she can canter on whatever lead she feels like. Always pull back and try again. But you can't just canter on her good side- eventually you have to get her cantering both ways.

If it was the other way around with leads, I would be led to think that your horse might have been trained as a racehorse at one time. But when you say "she canters on the right rein" you mean clockwise, right? Ex-Racehorses tend to be weak this way b/c of their training. They need to have their muscles built up on the left side in order to be able to pick up the left lead.

I would use the same technique with your horse and see if it works. She might be weak on the one side, leading her to have difficulty picking up that lead. If she is, you might also notice very subtle differences when she bends at the walk or trot- she might be stiffer turning going to the right.

Do longe work to build up the muscles- lots of walking and trotting. Start with her good direction, work for a few minutes, then switch to her bad direction and work for awhile. Then go back to her good direction for awhile to end the session on a good note. You can also longe her to try to get her to work on picking up the correct lead. BUT don't let her keep going if she is on the wrong lead.

Also, could you try pole bending? Like I said, she might be weak on one side, and bending will help stretch and strengthen the muscles.

If there is a hill available that you can trot up, I would do this. It helps strengthen a horse's muscles alot. They do this alot with endurance horses.

You also might want her back checked- there may be a physical problem.

I worked with an ex-racer this summer, and it was impossible to get her to canter clockwise. It took time and strength building to get her to the point where she could. You need to be patient, but you also need to fix this.

Maybe someother people will ahve some other suggestions for you.

[fionahogg]

If you apply the canter aid at precisely the right moment (or as near as you can get it! - might take some time!) you will be much more likely to get the correct canter striko off. You need to be able to feel which hind leg is coming under the horse in trot. When, for example, the horses left side 'dips' under you, the left hindleg is coming under him, and vice versa. You give the aid to canter when the outside leg is just about to hit the ground - when you feel the 'dip' on that side.

Hope this helps!

Fiona

[floppy]

hwo old is your hrose?
i knwo hwat you mean about having 2 trainers with conflicting advice..see hwat heather has to say...
and i would stick to one trainer. My cousin had a simialr probelm with her 3yr old...its at a profeesional yard at the moemtn but she also takes the hrose to another yard for lesson but both trainers give conflictinga divce and one says that the others trianing methods are wrong and vica versa. I would pick the trainer that uses method you are more comfortable with!