running into canter how can i stop this?

risky buisness

risky buisness

old newbie
Jan 28, 2009
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kent
hi, ok this isnt my pony its a friends shes loaning a lovely 14.2 black mare (dont no her breed) shes only 5 but the current owner bought her for her daughter and when she lost interest and they just decided to leave her in a feild and come up every few weeks to visit... so my friend decided to loan her and take care of her insted.

ok heres the trouble. she has had a small bit of schooling shes being schooled to walk, trot, canter and thats it. shes a lovely girl but when your in trot and you ask for canter she just trots really fast before she canters! she rides with a schooling whip gets her in a nice trot when in a corner sits gives her a squeeze and a tap with the whip and asks for canter..but all she does is speed up shes repeated this exercise many times but still rushes.

any ideas on how to help this problem? she also leans on the bit but shes got better with loser contact and half halts. all checks have been ticked off:D

thanks for those who can help.
 
Walk to canter transition. Hold the outside rein and push with the inside leg and then get an almost step of leg yield into the courner and then give your canter aids. Should get him pushing from behind and not falling into canter. Good Luck, I have some more ideas if that doesn't work but i won't bore you with them. (my horse did this for about 6 months)
 
schneeko said:
Walk to canter transition. Hold the outside rein and push with the inside leg and then get an almost step of leg yield into the courner and then give your canter aids. Should get him pushing from behind and not falling into canter. Good Luck, I have some more ideas if that doesn't work but i won't bore you with them. (my horse did this for about 6 months)
Click to expand...

dont mind you saying them.. just incase this doesnt work :p

shes fine when in canter its just getting her into it!
 
First of all I never use a whip, to me its like sayign to a child, hurry up then smacking them, totally confusing.
I am at the moment teaching my horse to canter from the quarters without rushing or falling onto the forehand.

This I am doing online basically because he is young and unbalanced and I know I can loose balance so don't wish to hinder him
 
keep asking until she does, the whip is absulute the last resort,
first use body then insist, then squeeze then kick. when she does it immediatly release pressure (leg). L&L x
 
Ok ... another excersize you could try is riding a 10m circle in trot to get him balenced and sitting back on his hocks before you ask or canter. Also, you can ask for canter out of leg yield so that he is stepping underneth himself and can therefore push off into canter better. Also, do lots of transitions from walk to trot and back to walk and then halt to trot and trot to halt etc. The more he sits back and works correctly, the better. And, the most important thing is ... HALF HALT. It might not work now, but if you really get him working correctly then the half halt will be more effective and the canter strike off will improve and will get easier for you. Try to actually give the halt halt as you ask for canter so he knows you don't just want a fast trot and try to get him to see that the aids for a faster trot are different to those for canter.
 
Ask for your canter transtion in a corner over a trotting pole. Weight to the outside, inside leg on as your body passes over the pole. My pony ran into canter. RI got me to do this in a riding lesson and we got a perfect transition second time, and every time after that. After 10 or so reps, did it without the pole. Good luck;)
 
one thing to think about is how good is her canter transition without a rider?

see how she is online/on the lunge -- if she rushes without a rider, then work on it without a rider first

also, on the lunge you can also teach a verbal cue to go into canter which makes life a LOT easier when riding a young horse

if it is just with a rider, then one key thing is not to allow the rushed trot -- as this puts her further off balance

so trot - ask for canter -- if she speeds up at ALL - then reward her by coming back to a walk -- keep doing this until she is relaxed and totally balanced and realises that speeding up is what you are looking for -- then, if she offers even a thought of canter, stop and relax for a bit, letting her know that was what you wanted...

By the way if it IS a balance issue then using a corner may be making it harder for her rather than easier -- to start with I wouldn't worry which lead she is taking and would ask her on a nice long straight

good luck

Cathy
 
She sounds unbalanced- hece the leaning and rushing. Cloud did this when I first got her and it ttok a couple of moths of lunging in canter to get the balance back. We saw an improvemtn each time. once the balance Is back the rushing and leaning will go away, it will take time, but be worth it.
 
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