counter canter

[pepsimaxrock]

... the latest trick we have been taugh.

Today, back from great riding holiday to the regular lesson. It is Easter Sunday so there were only three of us, and the whole huge school to ourselves.

And its flatwork day!! (What a relief, no jumping, trying to be positive since Pepsi fell over last week, but flatwork today will do.... phew)

So a little bit of no stirrup work, then lots of sitting trot circles , 4 loop serpentines, figure 8 canter with trot in the change of bend, you know the sort of stuff; and then RI says we are to try counter canter.

I am on Boris, he is a delight, but the one, according to RI, most likely to know that he is being asked for the "wrong" leg.

It was a great exercise - yes it took him - and me - a couple of times to get it right, but when we did, you could really feel it, like driving on the wrong camber and then coming true. Figures of 8 in canter and counter canter, - all on the same strike off leg. Fantastic! - learned a couple of things
control
stillness
the feel of the horse underneath and what he is doing.

Jumping next week, such fun. Sneaking a wee hack on Thursday with Cait tho as it is Easter. Wish I could ride everyday...

[domane]

Well done you and Boris... but come on then.... spill the beans to us Happy Hackers.... just how DO you get them to counter canter.... what are the signals??? Pretty pleeeeeeease.....

[happy highlande]

counter canter - one of those things that is easy to do when you don't want to and hard to do when you do want to!!

I start with a correct, bouncy canter on my favourite rein - then canter across the diagonal but aim to reach the long side before the quarter marker.
When you reach the long side you have to sit as if you are still on the same rein - forget you have changed rein - so your outisde leg is still your inside leg (if you were on the right rein, you sit as if your right leg is your inside leg, even though it is your outside leg!!!)

Still with me (doubt it!!!). Then ride the short side of the school in counter canter and then trot - pat your horse and breathe a sigh of relief!!!!

The knack is not to change your weight at all as the horse goes from true to counter canter. This is very difficult - so big claps to AAH for mastering it. She was doign teh same thing - but figure-8s instead of the diagonal change of rein - my school isn't big enough for that!

That is a rough guide - I'm sure someone else can explain it better - but hope that helps.

[pepsimaxrock]

thats exactly what we were asked to do HH.

It is funny, how cantering on the wrong leg is easy when you don't want it and hard when you do, how the horse so often rebalances itself.

We are lucky that the school is big enough to do it for a figure of 8; and that it was reasonably empty today. It is so big that sometimes there are 3 separate lessons going on at the same time.

We had to start a circle in "true" canter at one end of the school and try to get a really good canter going, then go across the diagonal (sorry if am repeating you Happy highlande) and down the quarter line into the circular end of the next part of the figure of 8, still in the same canter lead, keep it going round the circle and back across X across the next diagonal when you automatically end up on the "true" canter again (and what a relief it feels like).
It is apparently best just to sit in exactlhy the same position (how difficult is that) and ensure that you don't change aids, meanwhile keeping the horses head over the leading leg.

The difficult part was keeping him going, and using as much of the area as possible to keep up hte momentum - Boris wanted - cos this appeared to be the aids - to make the circle quite tight - if he lost momentum he fell out of the counter canter, and either did a flying change (unlikely) or fell back to trot (more likely).

The best bit for me was to make me really conscious of staying still...

Sorry for repetition...