pls dont laugh need technical advice

[rubysmum]

as a hardcore happy hacker - my lack of technical riding skils [and my ability to stay on big hoss in most situations lol] is not usually apparent BUT had [shock horor] riding lesson last week in our quite small indoor school - big hoss continually cantered on wrong leg - or didnt canter at all - the shame - could anyone provide simple [ie very small words] steps to canter pref with drawings
thanks in advance - do not underestimate my stupidity when following instructions you should see me with ikea furniture lol:confused: :confused:

[JustJas]

I am not wanting to sound daft but did you feel over-horsed from your thread? were you on your horse? It could just have been you were too tense.

I am not the type to give technical jargon advice... me and my flighty rab are just happy hackers. I hate arenas. I can go in them in an emergency but it really has to be one!

If you want to canter- sit deep keep your hands relaxed do not grip the reins and put your legs back. Keep inner leg on and outer leg further back.

Hope this helps- just keep hacking!

[Iron Maiden]

When you ask for canter, your inside leg squeezing on the girth creates energy, your outside leg behind the girth signals to the horse that you want to canter. As your outside leg goes back, make sure you don't lean forwards (try not to be sick down your horse's shoulder!!) - stay sitting tall & look up & ahead. It helps them get on the correct leg if you ask for canter in a corner, or on a circle as they are about to rejoin the outside track. You need to keep a rein contact so they don't just run faster in trot, but don't hang on rigidly because you'll block them going forward. Good luck!

[Skib]

How do you canter out hacking then?If that is easy, I'd suggest you do the same in the school. Approaching a corner.
I am a hacker too and rarely canter in a school. So when I have to take a canter test in a school, I just do what I am used to. Odds are that the horse will choose the correct lead. I've only once had a horse take the wrong lead.

Next exercise, to prepare for cantering in a school. This was what my RI told me to do.
When you are out hacking and get to canter feeling relaxed about it, practise asking for a particular lead.
Most horses out hacking choose their favourite lead, so all one needs to experiment with is asking for the other one? You can begin to take notice of which lead your horse prefers and whether he really has a problem with the other one? if so, it might not be your riding which is the problem at all?

Lots of people think you have to bend the horse at the corner to get it to canter round the school. But when the horse is actually going round the corner it is harder for him to get the outside hind leg under his body to push off.

You dont need to bend the horse, but you do need to encourage it to push off into canter using the outside hind leg. i.e. for left lead canter you need the right hind leg. So time your riding trot to rise on the correct diagonal for you to be sitting down and using your leg when the horse's outside leg is off the ground. Conveniently that is what would be the correct diagonal if you were in the school on that rein.

I dont pretend this is conventional BHS teaching. But it works for me because it builds on what I can already do, and am comfortable with. Dont underestimate the riding skills we have learned from hacking.

[Selle Francais]

Hi - well, you know, it's like everything else - if you're doing something new you have to re-learn a bit. I wouldn't be worried (or even surprised) - it's a different thing from what you've been doing, and you just have to adapt your existing skills a bit. S'no big deal.

Think also - big horse, small school - never going to be easy, was it?

I mean I'm fortunate, my boy gets the right leg probably 19 times out of 20, and if he gets it wrong, a quick nudge and he'll do a flying change and we're right again, but - it makes me a bit lazy!:) Having said that, when I first got him it took me over a year to get him to canter!:eek: So don't get too wound up over one lesson - it was always going to be different, and next time it will be better, and the time after that, etc.

Listen to the RI, relax (most of all - relax) and go with the flow - you'll be ok.

SF

[summerguest]

Keep the contact with the outside hand, and give slightly with the inside hand, and make sure you don't tip forward. That should help the inside fore strike off ( Technically outside hind ....activated by outside leg sliding back and giving a nudge) but hanging onto inside rein and tipping forward hinders the shoulders lifting up and the inside fore coming through.
Makes sense if you think of sequence of footfalls

1. outside hind
2. outside front and inside hind together (diagnal pair)
3. inside fore

Hope that helps

[LindaAd]

I find all this thinking about inside leg, outside leg, inside rein etc just makes me go stiff and twisted, and I also find it really difficult to know when the outside hind leg is in the air (ok, if I'm doing rising trot and I'm on the right diagonal, I'm sitting, but usually I ask for canter from sitting trot).

But if you just look towards the outside of the arena, that puts your body in the right position automatically, then use both legs and open your fingers so the horse knows you're asking it to go forwards.

And be sure you set it up properly first, with a nice, controlled, forward-thinking bouncy trot - not just trotting faster and faster on the forehand. That's important.

As for cantering on the wrong leg, I've found that RIs tend to tell you to just keep cantering - go at least half way round the school before you go back to trot and ask for canter again. Otherwise the horse can get confused and think a canter wasn't what you wanted after all ....

[jUmPingIsLifE]

everyone basically has it covered. Just a little trick if you are still having problems getting your canter lead. Sometimes it helps people to post on the wrong diagnol as it helps put your timing for your aids correct. Something my instructer had me do once on this horse i couldn't get to pick up the right lead. It actually worked too.

[rubysmum]

thank u so much to everyone who took time to give such detailed answers - will try & put all into practise when next forced into school cos of b***** winter & no light
I think the school wakens lots of anxieties in me - not about my riding per se but about being judged & watched - may try to sneak into school at strange time to avoid audience - but thanks again for all your help:)

[Wally]

Try just advancing your inside hip bone, the rest will follow on !

[Alfies-slave]

I ride a Clydesdale. He is fine in a large school. I would never ask him to canter in a small school, it would be like asking a light horse to canter a five meter circle!

Until your horse is balanced through more basic schooling he will have difficulties, he simply won't have learnt what to do with his legs! Being a big horse in a small school will mean he has no room for error.