Trouble when cantering

Lolabelle227

New Member
Oct 5, 2021
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Hi! So background info about me: I’ve been riding for nearly 3 years now. I started when I was a kid and gave it up after 3 years, but took it back up as an adult and here I am now with another 3 years of experience. After riding four (and briefly a fifth) different lesson horses for the past 3 years, and gaining lots of confidence with all aspects of English riding (jumping, XC, very very basic dressage etc) I decided to buy a very quiet, honest and beginner friendly 15 year old cob who had experience being used in lessons.



About her:

Dottie is 15 and 15.2 hands. She has just the right amount of go in her, is very safe and would never do you any wrong or endanger you in anyway. She is the sweetest ever!

So now the reason why I’m writing this:

In a walk and trot, she is a dream. She listens to me and can steady up or speed up when asked. However in the canter there is a serious lack of control.

The transition into canter is fine from both a walk and a trot, however after about 3-4 strides she drifts out on me and doesn’t listen to my aids like she does in my walk and trot!
  • Her hind end drifts towards the inside of the arena and we end up basically cantering at an angle. I have tried to get her bum back in by using my inside leg in behind the girth and outside leg at it, inside rein slightly opened and outside rein with firm contact. Still doesn’t listen even though she listens to these aids in a trot?
  • Speed is an issue, she won’t steady up for me she’s either completely in race cob mode or back into a trot. I’ve tried sitting deep, sitting back, using my hips, even calming her by talking to her but the second she hears ‘woah’ or ‘steady’, or any pressure is put on by the reins to collect her or slow her down she’s trotting again.
  • As well, I’ve noticed that in walk trot and canter, she associates all leg with ‘move faster’ rather than bend, or move with my leg or in the direction of it which obviously makes steering with anything else other than the reins impossible!
It’s totally on me and i just need to figure out what I’m doing wrong and what to do for her because I love her to bits and I know it wouldn’t be fair on her to move onto other things when I don’t even have something as basic as staying on the outside track in a canter down. Any help is much appreciated, I’m only used to push button horses that have brought on my confidence. She is so easy too but there’s a few sticky bits that once are fixed we’ll be flying in no time hopefully :)
 
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I’m maybe reading it wrong but you are saying she turns her bum in to the center of the school when cantering. You are then putting inside leg on girth and outside behind the girth? If so you are asking her to bring her bum in. You need to try putting your inside leg back to push her bum back over on to the track.

Cobs can quite often find canter hard. Excellent trot but canter much more difficult. I would start asking for canter, getting 2 strides and back to trot. Basically before she starts to struggle in canter you come back. Rebalance and set up the trot again before asking for canter again. Start on whichever rein she finds easiest. 2 good strides are better than struggling once she looses her balance. It’s not that she dosnt listen. She is loosing her balance and falling forwards so gets faster and faster. Think of yourself running down a hill, you loose balance and go faster to try and save yourself. Even if you start doing 2 strides canter and finish the session there.
 
Sorry I have no idea where I got the cob bit
From. Ignore the mention of cob. Some horses just find canter harder.
 
I’m maybe reading it wrong but you are saying she turns her bum in to the center of the school when cantering. You are then putting inside leg on girth and outside behind the girth? If so you are asking her to bring her bum in. You need to try putting your inside leg back to push her bum back over on to the track.

Cobs can quite often find canter hard. Excellent trot but canter much more difficult. I would start asking for canter, getting 2 strides and back to trot. Basically before she starts to struggle in canter you come back. Rebalance and set up the trot again before asking for canter again. Start on whichever rein she finds easiest. 2 good strides are better than struggling once she looses her balance. It’s not that she dosnt listen. She is loosing her balance and falling forwards so gets faster and faster. Think of yourself running down a hill, you loose balance and go faster to try and save yourself. Even if you start doing 2 strides canter and finish the session there.
Ahh sorry only seeing that now I got the two sides mixed up sorry! Yes I meant my inside leg behind the girth I’ll try edit that now apologies! But yes, when I do that (the right way sorry about that) in a trot she understands, but in a canter she just ignores the aid in terms of straightening herself up and instead takes it as ‘okay you’re putting leg on and want me to go faster mum!’. Any tips on helping her understand that leg aids don’t just mean go faster would be brilliant if you have any.

But thank you for the tip on trying to balance her in the canter! That’s actually a good idea in terms of strengthening and steadying her. I’ve never ridden a cob type for longer than a lesson or two so I never noticed that they struggled with this so I’ll definitely be more aware! Thank you :)
 
Ah ok 😂.

I had to do a lot of canter 3 strides and stop with my old boy. But he was just whizzy rather than unbalanced. I know quite a few cobs that have amazing trots but can’t canter.

Can you/she do leg yield? That is my go to exercise for most horses! You can start on the ground, use your hand or finger behind the girth while saying a clear “over”. Then you can get on in walk, leg where your hand would go with your clear “over”. Keep her bending away from movement. So left leg on to move to the right, very slight bend to left (or just keep her body straight). Start with one step then 2 and build up. Easier to teach them to go towards the fence. Build up both ways. Then in to trot. So they learn that leg there and “over” means over without speeding up.
 
My boy did the same and it stems from his natural asymmetry. Now he's straighter and stronger, he finds canter in the school so much easier but it's taken time - but worth addressing IMHO.

Assuming he checks out physically by the vet and physiotherapist (and assuming saddlee fits etc) and you've been given the all clear to ride, the things that helped me ...

Helping teach P how to control his shoulders and neck really helped him control the straightness of his hind end - so we started with shoulder fore, shoulder in, turn on the forehand and walk pirouette. We started teaching this in walk before under saddle. Keep sessions short and sweet to begin with and reward the slightest try, as it's not easy for them.

Our go to warm up exercise is to use the corners to ride TOF and 1/2 walk pirouette to help him and then the long sides to test the straightness. But also, riding squares, boxes and straight lines were really helpful - my boy drifted far more on circles at first as I think the shape naturally encourages that.

I like to think of my hands/the horse being 'within a box' (or on a train line works too as a visual) and it's my job to keep the horse in the box or on the train tracks. When you really start to concentrate on it, you'll be amazed at how much even the straightest horse seems to wiggle or push out through a shoulder.

Working off the track helps bring awareness too . It really showed up this morning on our trot, halt, trot transitions on the diagonals that given half a chance, he'll still deviate through his right shoulder 🤣

I found not working 50/50 on both reins helped, although it goes against what we're taught. I probably do 60/40 these days but it was probably even greater at first (more on his weakest rein).

Then helping him strengthen his core and hindquarters once he's moving straighter - so hill work, pole work, raised poles etc all helped.

Slowing down means they have to lighten their front end, taking the weight back onto their back end is actually really hard for them and he may just not be physically strong enough in his core and hindquarters to maintain

If you can, I'd highly recommend a rider physiotherapy session too - I find them so helpful to teach & reminde how to use my body correctly, so they can use theirs!

Have fun playing with some ideas :)
 
Ah ok 😂.

I had to do a lot of canter 3 strides and stop with my old boy. But he was just whizzy rather than unbalanced. I know quite a few cobs that have amazing trots but can’t canter.

Can you/she do leg yield? That is my go to exercise for most horses! You can start on the ground, use your hand or finger behind the girth while saying a clear “over”. Then you can get on in walk, leg where your hand would go with your clear “over”. Keep her bending away from movement. So left leg on to move to the right, very slight bend to left (or just keep her body straight). Start with one step then 2 and build up. Easier to teach them to go towards the fence. Build up both ways. Then in to trot. So they learn that leg there and “over” means over without speeding up.
I know how to leg yield. I doubt she does know how to properly do it because she was just a beginners school horse, but she does slightly understand lateral movement aids a little bit. We’ll start with doing it at a walk if she can’t figure it out but I’ll get a coach to teach me how to teach her if I can’t get her to do it myself! Thanks for all your help ☺️
 
My boy did the same and it stems from his natural asymmetry. Now he's straighter and stronger, he finds canter in the school so much easier but it's taken time - but worth addressing IMHO.

Assuming he checks out physically by the vet and physiotherapist (and assuming saddlee fits etc) and you've been given the all clear to ride, the things that helped me ...

Helping teach P how to control his shoulders and neck really helped him control the straightness of his hind end - so we started with shoulder fore, shoulder in, turn on the forehand and walk pirouette. We started teaching this in walk before under saddle. Keep sessions short and sweet to begin with and reward the slightest try, as it's not easy for them.

Our go to warm up exercise is to use the corners to ride TOF and 1/2 walk pirouette to help him and then the long sides to test the straightness. But also, riding squares, boxes and straight lines were really helpful - my boy drifted far more on circles at first as I think the shape naturally encourages that.

I like to think of my hands/the horse being 'within a box' (or on a train line works too as a visual) and it's my job to keep the horse in the box or on the train tracks. When you really start to concentrate on it, you'll be amazed at how much even the straightest horse seems to wiggle or push out through a shoulder.

Working off the track helps bring awareness too . It really showed up this morning on our trot, halt, trot transitions on the diagonals that given half a chance, he'll still deviate through his right shoulder 🤣

I found not working 50/50 on both reins helped, although it goes against what we're taught. I probably do 60/40 these days but it was probably even greater at first (more on his weakest rein).

Then helping him strengthen his core and hindquarters once he's moving straighter - so hill work, pole work, raised poles etc all helped.

Slowing down means they have to lighten their front end, taking the weight back onto their back end is actually really hard for them and he may just not be physically strong enough in his core and hindquarters to maintain

If you can, I'd highly recommend a rider physiotherapy session too - I find them so helpful to teach & reminde how to use my body correctly, so they can use theirs!

Have fun playing with some ideas :)
There’s so many great ideas there thanks for your amazing answer! She gets physiotherapy every 2/3 months just to get all checked up anyway, she had rhat with her previous owner and I’ve continued that with her now and my physiotherapist actually offered to do a session with me so I might take her up on this!

As well, Dottie is certainly weak in the hind quarters and puts a lot of her weight on her shoulders and if she has to engage her hind wnd will only engage one of the back legs! It’s quite frustrating as physically there isn’t anything wrong with her but our physio said there could have been a problem with her right back leg as a foal and she just prefers not to weight bear on it, but with a lot of raised poles and hill work it’s not as much of a problem anymore! However all our hard work seems to go out the window when we canter so asking the physio for some exercises would be useful maybe!

I don’t really know how to pirouette on a horse! Shoulder in I can do but I don’t think she knows how to do this as I’ve tried before and she’s very confused by it so I’ll get a coach to help me out with that! And I’ll definitely keep the train line analogy in mind! I love them little metaphors they actually help me so much!!
 
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