Controlling the trot?

Skib

Skib

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Dec 21, 2003
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I could have posted this in older riders or riders on ponies.
For I am an older rider and I have had a couple of happy hacks on a pony who may be a replacement for Maisie who retired at Christmas.
As some of you on NR know I spent years doing my lesson homework while hacking Maisie who thus fortuitously became a highly schooled horse. It helped that she had been trained for show jumping, so someone else had put in a lot of work first.
Sweetie is quite different. She is ridden by kids. I find the trot canter transitions a problem. Unless we reach a place where she regularly canters, when I ask for an active trot to prepare for canter, we just trot fast and faster. And the same if we come down from canter to trot. Alternating trot and canter is unknown to her.
She has a forward pony trot. I decided to start by teaching her slow trot and that was not a problem. On the way home I asked her for a minimal trot - like a Western jog and she learned it so quickly, with trot walk transitions.

This is only my second ride on her - I am not a bad rider. But I dont know enough about preparing fast ponies for the canter transition.
 
I would establish an active trot, then half halt her to let her know you are about to ask her to do something, then take sitting trot and apply a squeeze while mentally thinking 'canter' and visualising a 3 beat rhythm. If she speeds up, go rising again and slow her down to her original pace. Repeat, repeat, repeat until she offers canter without speeding up. She may be uncertain at fast if she is used to falling into a canter from a fast trot, so even if she only offer 2 strides of disunited canter, view that as a try and give her a scratch and a break. Then start again. Good luck!
 
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  1. I probably do it all wrong but I find if I have a nice active trot with her working her backend properly we get a lovely jump into canter, if Belle is dragging herself along on the forhand the trot just gets faster and we don't get the canter.
 
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KP nut said:
I would establish an active trot, then half halt her to let her know you are about to ask her to do something, then take sitting trot and apply a squeeze while mentally thinking 'canter' and visualising a 3 beat rhythm. If she speeds up, go rising again and slow her down to her original pace. Repeat, repeat, repeat until she offers canter without speeding up. She may be uncertain at fast if she is used to falling into a canter from a fast trot, so even if she only offer 2 strides of disunited canter, view that as a try and give her a scratch and a break. Then start again. Good luck!
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Sort of what I was trying to say but so much better put. :)
 
I would extend the trot first so that you're rising slower then transition into canter. Am in the same boat as you Skib as I'm preparing to take on my first pony so have been having lessons on "tiddlers" to practice:D. Not easy when you're used to a bigger stride:oops:
 
Ziggy is whizzy and used to be a driving pony so can easily get in to the trottrottrot fasterfasterfaster mode.

My first rule is: unless he is trotting nicely, with a reasonable contact for me and with his back lifted and no resistance in his neck, I don't ask him for canter. If he does canter it will be rough and rushed. First it has to be a well set up controllable trot with no whizzing. If necessary I go back to walk and trot again, but these days I can ask usually him to lower and lengthen his neck and relax in his jaw and slow his trot, then let it out again a bit.

So once decent trot established, I keep the contact where it is, sit down, think "lean back" because I tend to tip forward into canter, and give a little squeeze. Usually he gives a little skip or hop and canters beautifully.
 
It's hard, Stella was used to just going from fast trot to even faster canter and used to scramble, I despaired of getting a long rhythmic canter from her :rolleyes:

I did lots of seat work, slowing and speeding the trot continuously then once she was sitting on her hocks I started walk to canter transitions as they tend to find this easier.

Once we had walk to canter transitions I began to play about the with canter, then once I could get three different speeds of canter I went back to the trot to canter transitions and she was very balanced by this point and found them much easier.
 
Lots of half halt work and lots of halt trot, trot half transitions to assist in improving listening to requests and not being on auto pilot mode.

For riding, keeping your body tall, rising slower and maintaining a contact (perhaps use sitting trot as I find it easier to collect up the trot in sitting).

Also walk to canter transitions? These may help the request, sometimes an active walk is much easier than active trot on a whizzer to start with!
 
popularfurball said:
Lots of half halt work and lots of halt trot, trot half transitions to assist in improving listening to requests and not being on auto pilot mode.

For riding, keeping your body tall, rising slower and maintaining a contact (perhaps use sitting trot as I find it easier to collect up the trot in sitting).

Also walk to canter transitions? These may help the request, sometimes an active walk is much easier than active trot on a whizzer to start with!
Click to expand...
This is exactly what I have been working on pfb in fact I was thinking about this this morning while I was riding, it felt like I was coiling a spring ready for all that lovely gathered energy to be used to push off into canter.
 
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That's how it should feel - the energy should be going upwards underneath you, rather than out the front door.

I suspect lateral work will help too skin, I found that generally whizzy RS ponies are not very balanced and rushing becomes an evasion to working correctly. Trot poles, leg yield will help with that as they have to engage the back end which is usually the difficulty.
 
A bit of context needed. I learned to canter mainly from walk, so that is no problem for me. However, unless I am specifically asked to do it, the RS prefer me not to ride walk canter from the ponies which are used to teach beginners and children. Just in case the ponies assume they can go from walk to canter with a rider on board who doesnt yet know how to canter.
Same goes for lateral work and poles - these ponies only hack. And (everyone says) dont do collection! I could, if I wanted, hack my young dressage lesson gelding, but I decided against him as too flighty - I want a safe quiet hack to enjoy hacking again. This pony enjoys going first with me - Feeling happy on a horse is the great thing. Working out this canter transition, a mere detail by comparison.
The contact question is another moot point. Because the kids tend to hang onto the reins and the ponies run with their heads up. I taught her last week that one can have contact and communication on a longish rein.
 
There in lies the problem I think Skib, if the pony isn't allowed to do certain things because she is for children and possibly beginers maybe you should just enjoy hacking her canter her where she is used to it and save any schooling for your dressage horse?
Sorry if I have misunderstood.
 
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Hmmm.....now there's a sticky problem if ever I've heard one!! Seems like you're kind of blocked in on every side.
Here's a question for you Skib - have you ever considered buying your own horse?:eek:
I read lots of your posts, I know you're an experienced rider that enjoys dressage and hacking, and have been following you're struggles recently with trying to find what fits you within your RS. I don't know your personal situation but was wondering if its maybe the time for you to take "that plunge"?:cool:
Just a thought.
 
Sorry my bad I read it as though you were in a school.

Work to help ponies balance will to aid you, perhaps try asking from a forward/light seat? This is usually an indicator for jump or increase speed, just try and make sure pony doesn't rush the trot - a steady active trot is always the best way to pick up a canter, so try getting the trot and then go into a light seat and ask for canter?
 
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Thank you for the suggestions. It is fine about me riding common or garden RS ponies. I am given free choice. The only reason I want this transition is my personal safety rule that the horses I hack must alternate 20 strides canter and 20 strides trot. With Maisie and most of the horses, that was to ensure they would transition down. This pony transitions up and down from canter very nicely. Just that I havent yet mastered asking her to resume canter. It is canter trot and canter again we havent yet got the hang of.
That is why I asked advice, and will use it. Thank you. One thing I should surely do is slow the canter before the downward transition - that could give me more control of the trot phase. She is expecting the canter the whole way to point X, so her mind is set on covering the ground. I have also learned in my school lessons to sit the trot so as not to slow the horse going into canter. I carefully did this on Sweetie but it had the effect of speeding up the trot.With her I am told to sit more heavilly. I am not keen on transitioning in and out of canter in forward seat. That is a bad habit of mine riding another horse with an uncomfortable canter and sooner or later I am going to fall off doing that - it isnt exactly safe.
About buying a horse - years ago I might have and I had the money for ten years livery. But instead was given long relationships with two RS horses, my share and Maisie - sadly unridden now. But perhaps I was always a multi horse person. In the last year I seem to have ridden 11 different horses which sounds bad - but I was offered and willingly accepted every single one of them. Even when I had my share and Maisie I would ride other horses too - the dressage lesson horses, the horses it is safe to ride bareback.
 
If your primary concern is safety as opposed to the enjoyment of the schooling itself, then I imagine just allowing the pony to canter from the usual A to B without interference from you is safest. She knows what she's doing and where to stop. Sometimes the battle to get a trot in the middle of the canter may make a faster pony put his head down to get away from bit pressure, or shake her head which may unseat you more than a longer, faster but smooth canter would. If you really do want to be able to alternate between trot and canter, you may need to shorten the canter interval to 5 strides not 20 to give yourself more chance of getting a second canter. Once you can get trot-canter-trot-canter reliably with short canter intervals then you could extend the number of strides you ask for.
 
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Well, I made matters worse. Was unexpectedly out with an RI whose riding style differs a lot from mine. I obediently rode the pony on a much shorter rein than I like and much closer behind her than I believe safe. The result of all this over-control was that the pony bucked.
 
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