Direct Transition Canter 2 Walk?

J

Jankia

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Mar 10, 2005
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Hi Everyone,:)

So much excellent information on this site, I joined up some time ago but this is my first post and I'd really appreciate any help/advice that anyone has to offer?

Started cantering 3 weeks ago and it's going pretty well (after a nervous start!), however, this week my RI instructor tried to get me doing direct transitions from walk to canter and down again. The upward transition wasn't brilliant but we did get into a canter reasonably quickly, just not direct! But the downward transition of canter to walk was hopeless. I asked my RI exactly what I should be doing and she just said "sit up straight and say 'walk'". I was a bit bemused because I was (or at least should have been) sitting up straight anyway, and couldn't see how the horse would respond to just a verbal aid from me, and it just didn't work. I had about four attempts, all of which resulted in a rough canter to trot transition and then eventually into a walk.

Does anyone have any helpful hints or tips please, I haven't been able to find anything on direct canter to walk transitions in any of my books or mags, and I really want to get this right?:confused:

Thanks
 
Dont know if your new to riding as you say you have just started canter? I think in my opinion its a bit much to expect for you to learn so early if that is the case. You should sit deep into the saddle close the thighs and take a stronger feel on the reins hope that helps but if your horse is used to voice commands it should work!!
Good luck its trial and error to see what works with each horse!!
 
Jankia

You need to think about what *you* are doing during the canter, and during walk. The rider needs to signal not only a downward transition, but what that transition it *to*...

Chris Bartle talks about keeping the revs up - i.e. its not about just dumping all the energy of the canter and slopping into a walk... its about containing that energy and expressing it a different way.

If, as holiday asks, you really have only been cantering for 3 weeks - I might be tempted to try a progressive transition first i.e. do a crisp canter-trot and then immediately do a crisp trot-walk - so that put together you get

canter canter canter <transition>trot trot<transition> walk walk walk...

You may find you start wirh 3 or 4 (or more) trot strides, and then gradually get the feel and shorten it up. I'll lay a bet that its actually easier to do canter-walk then have one trot stride in between ;)

You need to stay in balance through the transition. Mark Rashid often gets the rider to "count" through the transition, as it seems to help the body language. So actually you wouldn't mentally do what I wrote above (canter canter etc), instead you would go

1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2 1-2 1-2-3-4 1-2-3-4

thinking each stride seems to take the hesitation out of the transition i.e. instead of seeing

canter <hesitate> trot <hesitate> walk

you get a smooth flow.
 
oh .. p.s.

one useful thing that will possibly make people around you think you are raving mad, but helps... do it yourself on the ground...

i.e. canter along, and then try going into "trot" or "walk" and see what you have to do with your balance, your weight etc.

If you can, do all four legs (even standing upright, swing your arms) - but 2 will do at a push.

There is often a close mirror between what you want the horse to do (move the centre of gravity back, change the pelvis (*) etc) and what the rider needs to do to signal it.

(* Remember canter is assymetric, trot is symmetric - so there is more than just the change in order of legs, there is a change of body position and use as well)
 
O dear, we early learners (late learners in my case) have things happen which experienced riders never dream of.

Walk to canter. My current teacher strongly believes in this both on and off the lunge. The new rider is better balanced in walk than in sitting trot.

Mehitabel and others here have observed that the transition walk to canter is more of an upheaval and acceleration than trot to canter. But it certainly trains you in the motion of all transitions to canter (and you may find the excitement addictive - I have been ticked off for doing lovely walk canter transitions out hacking.)

Transition down from canter to walk. My problem has always been the opposite of yours:canter to trot. For ages when I came out of canter I would stop or at the best walk. And my teachers hated that. Seems we can never do what our teachers want.
My view about downward transitions is that they have to be treated like upward transitions. We learners are taught to prepare for all upward transitions. There are two or three steps at least where the horse has some advanced notice that it is going to be asked to trot or canter? Well I learned rather late in the day that the same should apply in downward transitions. This is not advanced stuff like dressage about which I know nothing.
First slow the canter. You will feel that the movement becomes heavier and more sluggish under you and the horse loses its canter. It is very bumpy to go from a fast canter into trot, so you will get a more comfortable ride by slowing down the canter first.
Whether you then get walk or trot (or halt) depends on the amount of leg you use, and, as cvb, says the amount of forward energy you communicate to the horse.
 
First slow the canter. You will feel that the movement becomes heavier and more sluggish under you and the horse loses its canter. It is very bumpy to go from a fast canter into trot, so you will get a more comfortable ride by slowing down the canter first.
Click to expand...

The downward transition needs to be controlled, not "falling" out of canter. So I just wanted to expand on what Skib said...

If, when you slow, the horse does become heavier, more sluggish - it is probably because they are finding it hard to collect and slow. This is where we often get confused and think we have to do less to slow the pace and change to trot or walk... if you do less, the horse will often just fall apart, and end up in some sort of pace...but not with much grace or style ;)

This is something I've been told off for before :eek: People often talk about what the rider is doing and suggest they need to "stop riding" and the horse will change down. But "stop riding" does not mean "become a sack of potatoes" :eek: it means "stop cantering but still ride actively" (in whatever pace you are aiming for). i.e. the rider stops riding canter, but doesn't actually give up the ghost :p

But the preparation *is* important. Making a downward transition from an unbalanced canter is just asking for trouble. Half-halt, slow, engage the inside hind, whatever you need to prepare and improve the canter before you ask. You will often find that the more *thinking* that you do as you prepare will start to act as a cue so then you start to get early downward transitions :rolleyes:

(I was working on walk-trot a while ago, and was thinking "uhoh, she's going to offer walk-canter"... actually until then, she was going to give me walk-trot - everyone watching agreed - but as soon as I just thought about walk-canter, lo and behold thats what she offered... rider error... again !)
 
Canter To Walk Transition

Hi Everyone:)
My thanks to all of you for the advice and tips, I'll try to put some of it to use in my next lesson on Friday. I have been riding for about a year now, but at the age of 48 and having only one thirty minute lesson per week, I have probably found it harder than I would have done had I kept it up during my teens, but I'm determined not to have regrets about what I've missed and just try to enjoy what I'm learning now!

I did have a couple of canters about eight months ago, but on the second or third time the girth hadn't been done up tight enough and the saddle slipped with me ending up in the sand!:eek: Had I been better balanced and more experienced I suppose I would have been able to stop this happening, and although I got straight back on and had another canter before ending the lesson, when I next came to canter I just froze! That's another reason I'm chuffed to bits at the moment, because I really was beginning to think I would never be able to canter at all, and it feels like I've taken a huge step forward all of a sudden, it's just a wonderful feeling.:D

Sorry to rattle on but I'm just over the moon:) , so to anyone who has had a negative experience or is just too scared to canter, I say just try to breathe, relax those thighs, sit deep and just enjoy the moment.

Thanks again to all those who have given me some guidance to get to work on, it's greatly appreciated.

Happy horseplay:)
 
cvb - Please note I was not advocating sluggishness, nor a horse "falling out of canter". I seem to have chosen my words badly.
But I was answering a fellow "late" learner who asked how to go from canter to walk, (as opposed to going from canter to trot which she already does).


So yes, sometimes by doing next to nothing, that is, letting the horse slow itself down, slower, slower, slower, the horse will reach walk, all on its own. At this stage, that is the only requirement: that her horse walks.
One of the things I do is to discover what something feels like. For instance, I deliberately let the horse slow to the point of altering gait. And experience through my legs and my body what that feels like.

When Jankia finds it both possible and stress free to "allow" the horse to transition down from canter to walk, then she can fine tune the transitions. By making the canter more collected, maintaining contact, riding forward in walk. But at the start of learning canter that is all too busy.
 
Skib - LOL - you know that I know you better than that ! That's why I expanded (or expounded ?? ;) ) on what you said. If I'd meant to disagree, I'd have said that :p

Its a difficult one without being there, but there is an assumption, implicit, that if the instructor is asking for canter-walk, the horse Jankia is on must be capable of it. So is less likely to struggle and fall apart so much if/when asked to slow slow slow... and walk...

but there are all those "unseen" who will be reading this who may need a little more background than yourself and Jankia... On one hand it feels a little arrogant to also write for those unheard readers, but on the other hand I know how often I refer back to something I have read previously, and may or may not have commented on :)

Newrider - a little bit of posterity for us all :cool:
 
I think the biggest thing is to imagine the horses stride is like a swing and to, with the lower upper body (if that makes sense) go against the natural stride while maintaining a straight posture with the rest of the upper body. I spent half a lesson working on this, because i had a tendancy to lean back too much to stop. Basically, i found, if you use you're stomach especially and hips to sort of 'stiffen' against the stride, the horse will respond well.
Its difficult to get a horse from canter to walk - what level do they ask for that in dressage?? I don't think i've ever encountered it. Perhaps you could ask you're instructor to start with trot to halt and then work up to canter to halt if you're having problems? I think its a bit too much to ask of you if you've only just started cantering, i think its better to work on straightness, rhythm, impulsion and position rather than difficult transitions (because canter to walk is decidedly difficult).
 
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