Question to stump you all.

[sultie]

Why is it that my horse walks and trots best on the left rein but canters better on the right rein!

[Mossy]

Couple of suggestions
Firstly how do you sit on him for the various paces. Are you restricting him without realising it? Easily done and no criticism intended.
Secondly just a guess but I would look at the musculature used for the paces and the physical mechanics behind the actions involved. Does he have uneven shoulders and the saddle is restricting him on one shoulder?
Lastly and probably very silly but has he done more work one rein than the other on the relevent paces and therefore finds it easier? This comes back to my second thought.
Hope I've helped

[Sarah]

hello!

This could well be because his right hind leg and quarters are stronger than his left one. When a horse walks and trots in a cirlce the inside hind takes a lot of the weight. With canter, the outside hind is the first leg of the stride and so if that is stronger the transition (and hence the quality of the canter) will be better.

It may be worth doing more work in trot and walk on the right rein to build up his right hind then doing figure of 8 shapes where you ask for canter at the middle of the eight so that the same hind is being asked to do the hard work.

If you can't get the quality of work better in a while with shcooling, it may be worht getting a physio or chiropractor to have a look at him.

bye!

[sultie]

Or the sequence of foot falls etc and weight on one particular leg. He got pocked and proded and we can find no difference in musculature and the saddle sits even. I am just curious really. His canter was pretty awfull but it is coming on and getting better on both reins thankfull. I would understand if walk trot AND canter were best on the same rein , rather tahn canter best on the other rein.

Probably will never know! Just Minto I guess. He has a strange working mind.....

[fionahogg]

I would say that the problem is due to, as Sarah said, how the different legs determine the quality of the various paces. Just because there is no noticeable difference between the muscles, that doesn't mean that the horse is even on both sides. The muscles that are weak may not be visible 'from the outside'.
It could also be due to the ability of the horse to flex his hocks?

Fiona