Straightness in the canter

[racipaci]

I've been working on Dave's cantering in the school recently and am having a few problems!

On the left rein his transistion to canter is good and he is round but not really on the contact, he also swings his bum into the centre of the school so is not at all straight!

Apparantly he used to do this as a racehorse so it's a pretty deeply ingrained habit and I'm wondering how to straighten him out! does anyone have any tips or exercises that could help?

On the other rein which is his worst rein he constantly becomes disunited behind, but I'm putting that down to him being quite green at schooling!

Any ideas or comments would be great! :D

[Sophini]

Am sure i've said this to you before but - Kitty does that too!!! We are increasingly starting to wonder if she's been a Point to Point horse at some time....

I tend to tackle it but just riding strongly forward with my inside leg slightly back to keep her quarters out though she loses straightness through her neck as well so we're pretty much sideways. With her it seems to be a reastion from being held up to stongly in front so i have to soften move forward and then ask for round again.

Am sure DavidH will have a solution :D

[racipaci]

Yep they sound very similar, I think you're right in that jockeys obviously hold them tight in front and they swing in to compensate. I have been tackling it by not worrying about his head and neck for the time being and just asking him to straighten but he is very resistant to it and I don't want to get into a masive battle over it.

I think it's like the trot, it's just going to take time for him to adjust and get used to what I'm asking, he does learn quickly it's just a matter of finding the best way to ask for what I want.

I did wonder whether asking for an outside bend might help him straighten whilst keeping my inside leg on!

Got combined training in a few weeks, hope we have it sorted by then! (yes I've actually started jumping him!! it's a very interesting technique we have! :D

[galadriel]

This was discussed here:
http://www.newrider.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30326

About halfway down is an excerpt from Jimmy Wofford's book "Training the Event Horse and Rider" (which is AVAILABLE IN PRINT AGAIN! Whoohoo). It's a great book, and the excerpt is, I think, just what you're looking for.

[Sophini]

That's a useful excerpt Galadriel, will keep an eye out for the book i think.

RaciPaci do you ever ride squares with Dave? I had to do a lot with Kit to get her to use her inside hind - instead of riding a circle from your inside leg to outside hand you ride a square using your outside leg to push the front end round each corner. I used to put a cone out to mark each corner then work on pushing her round it in walk and trot.

Might be the sort of exercise to help straighten and getting him moving off the outside leg as well, guess it's also a start to turn on the haunches....

Good luck for your CT!!!

[racipaci]

Thanks for the book and thread, the extract Galadriel included in the other thread is very helpful I'll get the book as it will probably help with my jumping and a number of the other issues we have!! :(

Sophini - I was about to say I have been doing squares with him, then realised I'd actually been making the girl who shares him do them when I was giving her a lesson :o Obviously need to take more notice of myself! :D

He does have a problem with not bringing his shoulder round and resists when I ask him so it's definitely something I need to work on.

In canter I might try doing pear shapes as someone on the other thread suggested to try and get him out of that fixed position! I just know it's going to end in him having a paddy becuase it's too hard!! :D :D but I'm sure he'll get it in the end! - at least he no longer launches off into canter likes he's starting the Grand National - was quite a worrying habit ! :D

[racipaci]

Oh my god! :eek: I've just looked up the book on Amazon and it's £145.00!!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

If anyone see it in this country for about half that then let me know :D

[cvb]

was going to suggest shallow lopps myself, but its already in the other thread ;)

But one thing - have you tried riding off the fence ? e.g. up the 3/4 line ? maybe its more that he's falling out slightly with the shoulder (as that quote partly suggests) so what you need to do (as they say) is bring the shoulder across to meet the hips rather than the other way around. Riding away from the wall/fence may help him learn to support himself a little ? (The shallow loops will help there too :D)

[racipaci]

I'll try tonight and see what effect it has, I think bringing his shoulder over off the three quarter line might work so long as I keep the outside contact to make sure he doesn't create a bannana shape, which would be my concern :D

It helps having these things to try as oppossed to me cantering aimlessly round thinking "yep - he's definitely crooked) and not doing anything about it. :D

[cvb]

dumb question, but someone had a light bulb moment on another thread sometime back where they suddenly realised that once you've asked for canter, and got it, you don't have to keep the canter aids on all the time ?

Cos once you're IN canter, then putting your outside leg back would be asking him to put quarters in ?!

[racipaci]

Nope - I definitely only put my leg back to ask for the canter.

I've been very positive in teaching him the correct aid for canter as he does get confused, I think it is much more a case of habit from when he was a racehorse - especially since his old stable girl commented on it too!

Will have a play around tonight and see if anything helps and check I'm not inadvertently keeping my outside leg back :)