Only partly in the cantering club..

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newoldrider

New Member
Mar 4, 2011
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Near Towcester
It's just over a year since I started riding (1 hour every few weeks - not enough really). The first two or three goes at cantering went OK - felt slow and smooth and not too scary (all on different ponies at RS) really enjoyed it and felt confident. The last couple of times (again on different ponies) the pony has taken off very fast, the ride so bouncy and bumpy I couldn't sit to it and felt unbalanced and very near to falling off (haven't fallen off since I was a kid). RI says I am leaning to the inside when I set off and this is bad.

Result - am now terrified of cantering again. I have a lesson tomorrow and nervous already!! Ridiculous.:furious: Any tips to start off a canter slower and if it does go fast and bumpy to sit it out in a way that minimises falling off risk? All thoughts gratefully received! Thanks all.
 
Sit tall, think long legs, and try your best to keep breathing :balanced: I found cantering nerve wracking for ages and still get a bit anxious about it. It might have been that particular pony's unfamiliar gait that unbalanced you and made you lean - depending on the pony you get tomorrow it might all come right again :happy: Above all - ask your RI to help you as that is what you are paying them for - having identified a fault they need to help you correct it.

Look forward to an update tomorrow :tongue:
 
Don't beat yourself up, for starters! I've been learning for about 18 months, regular lessons, and my cantering is still lousy :furious:. Best of luck for tomorrow, let us know how you get on.
 
I'm in a pretty similar situation to you, been learning for just over a year but lessons every other week only and am just beginning to learn canter.

I'm can't offer you any great advice but I will say that if I get my heels down I feel a lot steadier and can get my bum to stay down in the saddle rather than coming out too much. It's this that unbalances me and makes me feel like i'm going to fall.

I also find I can't relax if I know I have to canter. My RI gets round this by springing it on me so I don't have time to worry! Could you maybe have a lunge lesson? This would take some of the worry of your RS horse being too quick and you could learn to get your seat right first?

Good luck, i'm glad it's not just me who's learning to canter, seems like the hardest thing to do sometimes! x
 
Relax, sit up and look where you are going. Hopefully you sit in for few strides before asking and make sure horse is well balanced.
I am having issues with new horse I am riding at my RS a 16.2 TB with very long stride. everyone finds it hard to sit to and I dont actually know other than practice how to improve as he s so long and bouncy. It is nerve racking having been used to nice smooth shorter strided canters.
Its just time in the saddle and confidence.. But above all breathe, if you relax, soft hands then so will the pony ;-)
 
Is there any chance your RI would let you use a jesus strap on the saddle? Ive gotten my confidence up loads on Rosie and I'm now cantering and galloping around but I still need my strap for when we 'take off'

But apart from that all I can say is RELAX!
 
Thanks all for your replies - OK, sit deep, heels down, looking up, breathimg - and relax tummy muscles! Will post back and let you know how it went (provided not badly bruised...!!)
 
Newoldrider - you dont say how old you are?

It is great that you had a couple of good relaxed canters to enjoy, but not good that you have been scared. It happens to many of us. I have the deepest sympathy because I too became terrified of canter in the school.

My thoughts are as follows

First, that each horse has a different canter and too much has been asked of you too soon. Having cantered happily on a couple of RS ponies, you should have been allowed to go on with the same horse till you got really used to it.

Secondly, it is not compulsory to canter - though BHS schools often think it is - You have already shown that if a horse canters, you can keep you seat and not fall off. That is the major safety hurdle overcome. And having got that far, you are entitled to postpone canter until you feel really happy to try again. Meanwhile, just enjoy being on a horse and, if you think you might enjoy hacking, that is a fine way to recover from lessons that have scared you.

There is another way of learning to canter in a school - on the lunge. A classical teacher used to giving lunge lessons will ensure your balance is good enough and then progress you to canter with no problem. This is not a confidence question. It is a matter of technique and skilled instruction.

The reason beginners often become unbalanced when asking for canter is that using the conventional BHS method, they are expected to trot fast to a corner, then sit that fast trot round the corner, simultaneously asking for canter. It is hard for a beginner to sit to trot, especially going round a corner, and then they are further shaken by the first step of canter with the horse's outside back leg pushing hard under them and often lifting them up in the air.

At our school no canter is taught until the rider is secure in the saddle, including sitting trot. Then both older riders and children learn canter on the lunge meaning the RI is in control of the speed and steering of the horse. Moreover we learn to canter from walk, not trot, because a beginner is more secure in the saddle in walk than in trot. And going round a circle you dont have to balance round corners.

To give you an idea of time scale and hours in the saddle, my OH in his late sixties learned to canter after about a year of weekly 45 minute lessons. He has always believed that saddle time is the decisive thing - just sitting on a horse teaches you to ride in the end. He is now a keen and fearless canterer in the school.

Whereas I remained scared of canter in the school for many years. It wasnt till I was independent and shared a horse I knew well that I dared to go into the school and ask her to canter for me. It wasnt canter that was the problem in my case, it was the terror of those first lessons.

There arent any brownie points for being brave. Keep safe and go on enjoying your time with horses. Make that your priority and the canter will come in the end.
 
Well... a curate's egg of a lesson this morning. I read your post before I went out Skib, and found it very reassuring (I'll be 51 next week, as you ask, and officially menopausal, so spending a lot of time being hot,:hot: cross, :furious:emotional, :cry:eek:r all 3!).

I rode a horse I've ridden but not cantered on before, he's a big strong boy but very lazy, and I knew there was no danger of him taking off. It was very hard work to get him cantering (RI insisted I try) but when I did, it felt steady and easy to ride to (took 4 attempts and and we only went round half the school) and really restored some confidence. I remembered the long legs and sitting tall - but don't think I managed to breathe as well!

I think next lesson will be a lunge lesson, so I can work on staying balanced, while the RI is 'in charge' of the horse. Thanks to all for your advice and thoughts.
 
Well done for today, sounds like you made some progress and you managed to sit to the canter. I'm still only managing one side of the school, don't worry about how far you get just that you managed to get it at all! My RI always tells me that if you're not really ready then you won't be able to get it, which has proved fairly accurate in my case anyway!

Keep us updated! My lesson is tomorrow and i'm nervous already :eek::rolleyes:
 
Wow thats excellent, and dont worry the breathing will come.. ;-)
Also check what your feet are doing, when i come off balance I find my feet ride up and I grip with the knees.. wrong wrong wrong.. must say to yourself relax knees, keep heels down... sit up.. good luck next time
 
newoldrider said:
Well... a curate's egg of a lesson this morning. I read your post before I went out Skib, and found it very reassuring (I'll be 51 next week, as you ask, and officially menopausal, so spending a lot of time being hot,:hot: cross, :furious:emotional, :cry:eek:r all 3!).

I rode a horse I've ridden but not cantered on before, he's a big strong boy but very lazy, and I knew there was no danger of him taking off. It was very hard work to get him cantering (RI insisted I try) but when I did, it felt steady and easy to ride to (took 4 attempts and and we only went round half the school) and really restored some confidence. I remembered the long legs and sitting tall - but don't think I managed to breathe as well!

I think next lesson will be a lunge lesson, so I can work on staying balanced, while the RI is 'in charge' of the horse. Thanks to all for your advice and thoughts.
Click to expand...

2 our of 3 is excellent - well done! :bounce:
 
Everything sounds good - little by little is the answer.

My post didnt make it clear that I learned to ride and cantered and was scared at a normal BHS school.
I then switched to the current school. It was there that my OH and grand daughter learned to canter in the manner described, via lunge lessons. I hope your lunge session goes well.
 
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Went for a private canter lessn yesterday. Was hugely nervous in advance, but relaxed a bit when I saw the pony I was to ride was a steady boy who I've ridden lots of times - and in fact had my first canter on (hanging on to his mane, hoping for the best but nonetheless grinning like an idiot ...).

My RI helped me with my cornering, telling me to twist my lower body outside hip to inside hand, while pointing my upper body in the opposite direction i.e. the direction we want to go in (my RS is set on the BHS approach of cantering out of a corner as described in Skib's post above).

She also helped me relax in the trot approach to the canter by making me sing, count or chant (so I'd breathe), then lean RIGHT back and put hands forward when asking for the canter.

This was the first time I've cantered relying on balance without holding on to a big handful of mane. I'd love to say it all went well and we cantered confidently round the school, but although the transition to canter went fine, we only managed 3 strides before my nerves and hands slowed him back to trot.

Hmmm. This is going to take time and practice. I still need more experience of how the gait feels before I can feel sufficiently confident to rely on my ability to balance. I still think a lunge lesson will help and will insist next time (RI's opinion was that I'd be back to square one as soon as off the lunge).
 
I have only seen a couple of replys so sorry if you have done this now lol

I hve only been rideing a year but was haveing two to three lessons a week.but when I first had a canter in was on a hack and I hated it.
Next time I was so so scared of it but went ok.
Then started to go out on longer hacks and my freind just said to watch were your going and everything else will happen.
Well that's what I have been doing ever since and it worked and I now have my own horse who has a bouncy canter but I find if I don't think about it to much it just all happens on it's own.

Good luck and don't worry about it as it will come to you :)
also I found cantering out on a hack good for me as didn't have to worry so much about corners lol
 
I agree with Beakysian, three strides is good. It has taken me ages (years!) to learn to canter with a reasonable level of competance and I still struggle with transitions. But who cares - I've enjoyed the ride!
I agree that plenty of saddle time is key. If your RI is insistent you canter from trot rather than walk (as mine also is) I think time doing sitting trot also helps.
But what you did today (find out you don't need to grap the mane) is a big step forward. I used to tense my shoulders terribly, which then pulled my whole body forward, but once I realised I didn't need to cling on it was a big step towards learning to sit up tall and deep and therefore to follow the movement. But it didn't come all at once - in fact it is still a work in progress! So don't worry, you are doing great!
 
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