Hi all I'm new to this forum and I have commenced riding again at 48. I rode as a child no lessons just on farming friends ponies and a young adult but had a nasty fall in my twenties perhaps a combination of inexperience and terribly trained horse. Anyway I wasted a lot of years in fear but decided I loved riding and want to give it another go. My first instructor was a lovely girl but inadvertently strengthened my fear of riding. I continuously felt fearful. Anyway I have since found the most marvellous instructor but I am stuck at the trot canter transition. Every single one is disordered, uncoordinated and unbalanced. I find I can't ask for the canter transition correctly as I lose my stirrups and then I am essentially running the horse into a canter rather than a nice even gait. Once in the canter I'm fine and can ride it fine. I suppose what's most upsetting is I use to ride the canter transition no problem but now it's messy I lose my stirrups then balance and my confidence. I am walking, trotting well at both sitting and rising I can leg yield and bend horse correctly but just stuff up the canter. What am I doing wrong some tips on keeping calm and relaxing more before transition would be helpful.
Losing stirrups at the canter
- Thread starter Sierra sunrise
- Start date
Often when we get nervous we subconsciously go for a fetal position, which the first step of is to bring the knees up, which can result in stirrup loss especially if your conscious brain is also trying for a transition and cues with those legs 
Would you RI perhaps give you a lunge lesson to help you get this transition sorted?
Would you RI perhaps give you a lunge lesson to help you get this transition sorted?
I have some thoughts on this as I myself never mastered the correct aids for a canter transition. (I learned to ride as an older adult in my sixties) Was talking last week to an RI about this, as a couple of lesson horses cantered for me tho they apparently wouldnt for other students.
Sometimes lessons concentrate on what is correct for the rider. That tenses you up as you aspire to do well. And one forgets the horse.
I learned canter transtions somewhat differently - At my RS, (after canter on the lunge) we cantered from walk and we didnt really do it on the corner but a little way before the corner. When I learned trot to canter, again it was different as I learned out hackng on the straight. This may give you sme fresh ideas? But discussing last week why horses liked to canter for me, we concluded that it had nothing to do with the aids for canter. More the philosophy. To do anything in riding we are taught, you have to put the horse in a position where it is able to carry out what you want, Our RI meant physically able, but I include mentally able. Then you ask with a minimal cue. Then you do nothing, leave the horse free to carry out your order. It is the horse who needs to organise its legs, breathing etc.
So in a conventonal lesson or doing the aptitude w.t and c test at a RS on a horse I dont know, the important thing is to prepare the trot in advance, as you approach the corner. Just gee it up a bit, and use the reins to bunch the horse up a bit with its hind legs under it. i.e. not running trot. Then just before the corner you sit, but you sit without upsetting the active rhythm you have just created. The horse brain seems to recognise then that the combinatin of active trot, your sitting and the corner signifies canter is coming. All one needs to do is say Not yet, not yet, and then at the moment you want canter to think OK - sit back a little, relax your hands to let the horse move forward, relax your thighs to allow the horse forward between your legs and touch your heels lightly to the horse to signal the canter. Breathe slow and deep and think in time to the three time beat, if you need to relax.
Leave everything to the horse. I believe that the preparation tells the horse what to expect next. The horse knows I want canter. I often say that horses cnter for me because they know I like to canter. Now I have revised that. They canter because they understand and have got themselves ready for it.
If the horse does not canter,I never continue. I never ask again. I go through the same procedure, normal trot, prepare the trot and ask. I also dont go large but circle round to that same corner for a second "ask". And will possibly use stronger leg aid in the ask and say the word canter.
As one does this geed up trot, some horses dont get it. You already know there is no potential to canter. If that is the case, I dont bother to ask for canter. If I dont know the horse I may tell the RI that the horse has no canter and they may tell me a bit about that particular horse and how to ride it into canter. But some horses, which i do know - need something different. I mean to ride lots of walk trot transitions or to ride large in a vigorious trot to loosen the horse up, or collecting the trot and extending it. Or, if you want to bringthe hind legs under, some small circles in walk. For me it is better to have the horse listening and to make canter easier for the horse than to plough on round and round the school with many failed asks for the canter.
Apart from anything else, repeaed failed asks for canter destroy one's confidence as a rider. Whereas using these strategies reminds me, the horse and the RI that I am in charge and know what I am doing.
Being an adult student as you have found is a complicated matter. It shouldnt be increasing your fear. If it is this RI who is the problem, may be that is aother issue altogether. I know that the RI from whom I learned most was also one of the most useless when she had me in the school. I was for her by definition an elderly non starter - think RDA. That RI was a Carer.
Contrast the RI I went to when I dreamed of riding a flying change before I got too old to learn how! Pony and I learned together, miraculously moving up through dressage canter and when I eventually rode a flying change people righty admired her for that. There are teachers who predict you will amaze everyone including yourself. And provide the horses and tuition that makes it possible.
That is something for you to consider. I cant ride for an RI who lists all the things I did wrong. I need the freedom even in a lesson to be competent and adult with a horse.And then I flourish.
Sometimes lessons concentrate on what is correct for the rider. That tenses you up as you aspire to do well. And one forgets the horse.
I learned canter transtions somewhat differently - At my RS, (after canter on the lunge) we cantered from walk and we didnt really do it on the corner but a little way before the corner. When I learned trot to canter, again it was different as I learned out hackng on the straight. This may give you sme fresh ideas? But discussing last week why horses liked to canter for me, we concluded that it had nothing to do with the aids for canter. More the philosophy. To do anything in riding we are taught, you have to put the horse in a position where it is able to carry out what you want, Our RI meant physically able, but I include mentally able. Then you ask with a minimal cue. Then you do nothing, leave the horse free to carry out your order. It is the horse who needs to organise its legs, breathing etc.
So in a conventonal lesson or doing the aptitude w.t and c test at a RS on a horse I dont know, the important thing is to prepare the trot in advance, as you approach the corner. Just gee it up a bit, and use the reins to bunch the horse up a bit with its hind legs under it. i.e. not running trot. Then just before the corner you sit, but you sit without upsetting the active rhythm you have just created. The horse brain seems to recognise then that the combinatin of active trot, your sitting and the corner signifies canter is coming. All one needs to do is say Not yet, not yet, and then at the moment you want canter to think OK - sit back a little, relax your hands to let the horse move forward, relax your thighs to allow the horse forward between your legs and touch your heels lightly to the horse to signal the canter. Breathe slow and deep and think in time to the three time beat, if you need to relax.
Leave everything to the horse. I believe that the preparation tells the horse what to expect next. The horse knows I want canter. I often say that horses cnter for me because they know I like to canter. Now I have revised that. They canter because they understand and have got themselves ready for it.
If the horse does not canter,I never continue. I never ask again. I go through the same procedure, normal trot, prepare the trot and ask. I also dont go large but circle round to that same corner for a second "ask". And will possibly use stronger leg aid in the ask and say the word canter.
As one does this geed up trot, some horses dont get it. You already know there is no potential to canter. If that is the case, I dont bother to ask for canter. If I dont know the horse I may tell the RI that the horse has no canter and they may tell me a bit about that particular horse and how to ride it into canter. But some horses, which i do know - need something different. I mean to ride lots of walk trot transitions or to ride large in a vigorious trot to loosen the horse up, or collecting the trot and extending it. Or, if you want to bringthe hind legs under, some small circles in walk. For me it is better to have the horse listening and to make canter easier for the horse than to plough on round and round the school with many failed asks for the canter.
Apart from anything else, repeaed failed asks for canter destroy one's confidence as a rider. Whereas using these strategies reminds me, the horse and the RI that I am in charge and know what I am doing.
Being an adult student as you have found is a complicated matter. It shouldnt be increasing your fear. If it is this RI who is the problem, may be that is aother issue altogether. I know that the RI from whom I learned most was also one of the most useless when she had me in the school. I was for her by definition an elderly non starter - think RDA. That RI was a Carer.
Contrast the RI I went to when I dreamed of riding a flying change before I got too old to learn how! Pony and I learned together, miraculously moving up through dressage canter and when I eventually rode a flying change people righty admired her for that. There are teachers who predict you will amaze everyone including yourself. And provide the horses and tuition that makes it possible.
That is something for you to consider. I cant ride for an RI who lists all the things I did wrong. I need the freedom even in a lesson to be competent and adult with a horse.And then I flourish.
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You might be losing your stirrups in canter because you are inadvertently gripping with your legs or tensing. I've certainly gone through phases of losing my strirrups for that reason. I agree that lessons on the lunge might help but I also found lessons without stirrups (with a horse with a smooth trot!) were a great help. That is how I first learnt to follow the movement and relax in canter - having no stirrups to tense against!
I have a similar problem to you Sierra sunrise, and posted about it earlier this week. I'm new to this forum so not sure how to link the thread but it was called "what do I want from my riding" and some of the advice I got there might be relevant for you. I know I tense up because I'm now so hung up on not being able to do it that i get frustrated, so need to work on that. I'm sure with patience and practice we'll both get there!
Skib, your reply is fascinating and really helpful, I'm going to try what you suggest. I think I try too hard.
When I started back I lost my stirrups all the time but I've cracked it now. I had one particular lesson where the RI encouraged me to take my knees away from the saddle, keep my lower legs close to the horse's side and imagine rising gently using my thighs as though my lower legs weren't there. I've also been told to relax my lower legs and feel my weight in the outside of the strirrups. This last didn't help at first but now it does. It was also helpful being shown physically, exactly where my lower leg should be and that wasn't where I had been putting it based on what I remembered from 20 years ago!
When I started back I lost my stirrups all the time but I've cracked it now. I had one particular lesson where the RI encouraged me to take my knees away from the saddle, keep my lower legs close to the horse's side and imagine rising gently using my thighs as though my lower legs weren't there. I've also been told to relax my lower legs and feel my weight in the outside of the strirrups. This last didn't help at first but now it does. It was also helpful being shown physically, exactly where my lower leg should be and that wasn't where I had been putting it based on what I remembered from 20 years ago!
Thankyou so much for this insight I perhaps haven't thought of it like that before. I think I got caught up with the process of canter I wasn't thinking of setting my horse up for success. My riding instructor actually has more faith in me than I do. She is very encouraging and often states I know you can do it it's in there but your mental baggage is causing you a lot of anguish. Which is ultimately true. She states the only reason she pushes me to canter is because one she feels I'm well and truely ready I have come to the point when progression is imminent and two my sitting trot is perfect ( I beg to differ) however I do say my rising and sitting trots are easy for me but the moment I think canter it falls apart so I suspect what you are saying is correct. Both mine and my horses mental states need to be in a calmer place for the canter to come. I'm not expecting miracles not by a long shot but I can't help feeling a little disappointed that my once easy canter transitions have become something unacheivable ATM. The school horse I'm riding is so very forgiving but can be a little more difficult to get into canter but once in stays until I say otherwise. It's interesting because once the transition is done and I'm cantering I instantly relax so I am aware that fear and as another poster stated I'm going into fetal position. I am wondering how to combat this reaction because I really don't know I'm doing it until I am so the more unbalanced I am the worse the transition resulting in the chaos of lost stirrups. I appreciate any advice on this and I thankyou for this insight.
I'm sure we will there is an element of trying too hard and forgetting to enjoy the moment I believe
I think you hit the nail on the head with leg position as I cannot believe how much riding has changed in 20 years since I rode last. I will try some of your techniques and see if it helps thankyou
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