Canter Transitions (From walk and trot!)

toohorsemad

toohorsemad

Victor's Mummy
Oct 1, 2004
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Ireland
OK my horse Vic has a nice canter and is usual a bit hard to get into canter but lately impossible! I don't know if its me (it probably is! :rolleyes: ) but he is impossible to get into canter in the arena! Its ok out hacking but when it comes to the arena i ahev to use my xc to keep him going! Its very annoying! Because I think I'm getting somewhere then this happens and plus my RI says I should practise walk canter transitions with him! How can I do walk canter transitions! Can you tell me the aids for walk canter? Are the aid outside leg behind the girth and inside leg on the girth and sitting trot for trot canter? Am I doing it wrong??? I'm really depressed about this as I know that people can canter that have been riding 3 months when I have been riding 3 years and I can't get a canter of MY OWN HORSE within 5 beats of sitting trot at least! :rolleyes: :( :( :(
 
I use to have a problem getting Toby to canter from walk and jog/trot. Part of that reason was he wasnt fit and doing lessons so he was tired. But anywho....

For the upward canter transitions, you apply pressure with your outside leg not too far behind the girth. The inside leg should be at the girth and you can use a bit of pressure to keep the horse on the rail. You want to sit back and not pull on the reins.

From trot to canter, you do the same and sit before asking for it. If the horse doesnt pick it up within 3 strides, halt and back, then ask again. Thats what we did with Toby and it helped a lot.
 
Some horses (and riders = me!) find walk-canter easier so make sure that you've got a nice, forward going walk and give it a go. It may take a few goes for him to get the idea and if he's good off voice aids add that in too until he 'gets' the non-verbal aids.

With regards to the trot make sure that it's active but that he's not all long and strung out because that will make it more difficult for him. If he runs into it or jogs just bring him back to a nice trot and start again, you can use the voice aid here too.

It may be worth getting his back etc checked out if things have got worse recently, he may have tweaked himself and is finding it uncomfortable to make the transition. Also get someone to check your position just to rule out that you're not hindering the process :) One thing that I found with canter is that the more I 'try' for it, the worse it gets!!!

Good luck
 
Thanks for the advice! Today I had a lesson and we did circles with trot and canter! I though we were going to go terrible! But he give me a great canter when I wanted it! And really lanched into it! We hada few hiccups but it was the first time we did circles right and I was very pleased with him! So I think he was a bit depressed the day we had a bit of a problem getting into canter because he was the only one working! And his mates where in the field playing! :rollseyes:
 
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