'interesting' lesson!

Cremola Foam

Cremola Foam

Well-Known Member
Jan 11, 2005
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Scotland
Felt a bit deflated after my lesson this morning, but I've gotten over it and feel a bit determined now!

was our first lesson since the autumn and it was a little eventful! Started off doing some walk and trot work, circles, serpintines, getting me to ride properly! (Out the outside rein) then my instructor decided we'd have a bash at canter. So off I went to show her how appauling our canter is! And Pedro didn't disapoint! He ran for a good bit before my ineffectual legs managed to get him to break into canter and he motorbiked down one long side (well, kind of down the centre line really!) before falling into trot before the corner!

Instructor then says to me "right, I'm going to talk you through the transition."

So onto a circle we go and the rest of the lesson was spent trying to get him to do a decent transition. It didn't happen! What did happen was a rather lot of racing round like a giraffe on speed, taking 10 mins to work him down, asking for canter and getting the giraffe, 10 min talk down, giraffe etc! By the end of the lesson however he was doing a lovely extended trot when asked for canter and coming back to a lovely working trot without the giraffe making an appearance. (Somewhere in the middle of all this he had a full blown paddy! Stamping his feet on the spot, refusing to go forward and then bucking!!)

Instructor thinks he doesn't understand the aids for canter. When we canter out on a hack I don't have to ask him, we pop into trot, he strains at the reins until I loosen them and off into canter he goes, without a leg aid from me. She thinks the paddy was in part because he was confused and looking for some direction and in part because he didn't want to work!

I enjoyed the lesson and laughed all the way through, but afterwards I felt deflated. I just felt like 'how on earth am I going to get over this canter issue when I don't have a school I can use more than once a week!'

But I have since had a chat with a couple of friends. One who reminded me that he can canter in the school, she has witnessed it. And the other who said "that's the thing, you get these people with these ponies who go really nicely because they have a school they can use all the time. But we have ponies that are amazing hackers! And think of all the people who's ponies are schooled really well but won't hack out."

I am always greatful that I have a pony who will hack alone and in company, but if I'm honest I want him to be well schooled also. And don't think you have to have posh facilities to have a well schooled pony. So I've been wracking my brains, trying to come up with a plan and I think one is formulating!

1/ I am going to organise a canter boot camp for the easter holidays! Going to book the arena we use three or four days in a row and get my instructor (and maybe a couple others just to mix things up) to come and teach. It's quite a trek to ride over and back that many days in a row so I'll see if I can russle up a few lifts.

2/ there is a field about a 10 min hack from the yard. I could go there and school of an evening (I think the top half of it is pretty flat.)

3/ I can get intouch with the owner of the livery yard at the top of the hill and see about hiring his indoor school.

4/ When hacking out and cantering I'm going to make sure I have a nice steady trot before letting him canter and as he does I'll put my leg aids on. I'm thinking even if I'm a little late with them he'll start to get the picture!

5/ hire the arena we usually use once a week, lesson once a fortnight.

Oh! And 6/ ask farmer if I can ride in our winter field when late spring comes and the field dries up!

So yes, feeling altogether more positive about it. And as my instructor said "we did get some good work out of him today, just not the work we were aiming for!"

Really wish silly work and weather didn't get so in the way of my riding career! Weather ment to be nice tomorrow morning but pants by the time I finish work! Oh well, Tuesday looks better!
 
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Brilliant that you have a good hacker. And that he canters without a leg aid out hacking. Maisie always did too. None the less, it was me (not the horse) who needed to learn my canter leads in order to canter well in a school. We found that if I indicated which lead I wanted each time I asked Maisie for canter out hacking, she eventually got the idea. But one had to take the trouble to ask - which many people out hacking (including me) dont do.
 
I agree with you Skib. I think a lot of it is down to me. I'm sure Peds does know the aids, he's just forgotten them as I don't use them all that often!
 
I had this problem for quite a while, as I learned to ride out hacking where canter is pretty easy to get, and my early days learning to actually ask properly for canter in an arena were more than a little messy - especially as I had no instructor to tell me how to do it! It is tough when you haven't got a space to practise regularly (or in my case, didn't ride regularly full stop) but I think you have a good action plan there.

To me there is a big clue when you describe your legs as "ineffective". It seems like you aren't getting a clean transition because your aids aren't clear and purposeful enough to get the message across. The fact that his trot gets so speedy does suggest that you are using your legs and seat in some shape or form, but just not giving him that one clear, purposeful leg aid that actually says "I would like canter NOW please". He knows you want something but he's not sure what! Signs of resistance like the giraffe impressions / hollowing his back and "running" off in trot indicate that there is a lot of physical tension in your own body which is causing tension in him too. I know it is difficult when you are struggling to give your aids but it is really important that you are relaxed when you give them or your tension will exacerbate the problem. Whenever possible I would try to do plenty of work without stirrups (even if it's just in walk) and leg exercises like the frog etc, to improve your seat and balance, and working on your sitting trot will help too, as being able to sit deep for several strides as you place your aids will make all the difference to your canter transitions.

Cremola Foam said:
and the rest of the lesson was spent trying to get him to do a decent transition. It didn't happen!
Click to expand...

I'd also advise you to try not to get into the mindframe of "I am struggling with this exercise so I must work on it repeatedly until I get it right". I find it is all too easy to get fixated on solving a specific problem and not want to do anything else - but if you don't give yourself and the horse a break from it, a lot of tension and frustration can build up, and just make things harder to work through. For example, when my mare was new to schooling I had some issues with canter transitions on the right rein as it was her "bad" side, she was unbalanced and rushy and didn't pick up the correct lead. I found that after a couple of incorrect strikeoffs and having to bring her back to trot to ask again, she would start to get very tense through her body, chuck her head around, and generally wind herself up. It had the same effect on me too - the more we tried and failed, the more frustrated I got, and being a sensitive horse she was feeding off that. So I learned that instead of just doing transition after transition after transition, the best method was to do a few and then if it still wasn't coming right, I'd leave them for a few minutes, spend a while doing walk and trot work to get us both to relax again, and THEN give the canter another go. As you and your horse were (by the sounds of it) getting quite tense, I think spending the entire remainder of your session working solely on canter transitions was probably one of the reasons you didn't succeed! Don't be afraid to stop the exercise for a while, take a break doing something you CAN get right, and then go back to it again.
 
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When hacking I always ask for a specific lead and alternate which one I ask for so that Jess doesn't get one sided. I think if you just use the aid at the right time for a week or two he will get the idea of what you are asking for then once he will go off an aid you can start asking for a specific lead, normally I would never canter at the same place every time I go there, but in this instance it might help you if he knows what is expected so if there is a place you often canter use that to help him learn what you are asking.
 
Thankyou everyone for your tips! Joosie a lot of what your saying makes sense!

I took him out on Tuesday and worked on some of the things we did in our lesson. So getting a steady longer striding trot and the canter transitions. I made a concious effort to sit up and use my aids! (was very aware that I normally let him do a choppy trot and then lean forward and put both legs on! No wonder the boy gets confused!) but we got our transitions each time, after a small amount of speedy trot. First time I asked I could almost hear him saying "what???" Lol!

Jessey due to our hacking we have minimal places we can canter so its always in the same places. Although I try to not always canter when we go out but at the moment I'm working on canter confidence for me so need to canter every ride.

Oh, also I did quite a bit of sitting trot once I'd managed to settle his trot!
 
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If you can use that field that will be great.

I had a terrible time with alfie in the canter in the early days. He had a leg in a different county and just couldn't get himself balanced enough to do it.

You need to make sure you've got a good balanced trot before the canter. If he starts to run on bring him straight back down using your seat as much as possible.

Aim for what will feel like a really slow rise but still pushing him on so he covers the ground a bit more but not rushing. Start to teach him legs don't always mean speed. This will help him to sit back and actually listen to what your legs mean as you're not using them to just go faster and faster.

I was also suggested to try asking for the canter from a rising trot. I so badly wanted him to get it right when I sat I would really try to push him into it and drive him with my whole body which inevitably meant he ran faster and didn't canter. Once he got the aids in rising trot it meant I could sit and use my aids more effectively.
 
I would ask the instructor to get on board and show me - it might give her further insight into the problem, and she can explain in greater detail what you need to do.
My last mare had a lot of opinions. I remember one instructor getting quite snotty about the right way to ride her - she got on to show me how it should be done. And failed....:p
 
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