Walk to canter

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May 7, 2002
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So today we started by doing some yielding and half halts. All was going OK and then RI says "Walk past C and go from walk to canter." :eek:

"Sorry," says I, "didn't hear that!"

"Yes you did," says RI, "so do it. He knows the cues for canter, you know the cues for canter, so get on with it before I beat you with your own stirrups!"

So we tried - and got walk to canter first go! He had the most floaty canter :D we did walk/canter/walk and RI said my position was good so I am grinning from ear to ear now :) !
 
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great news Chev :D I’m having some schoolmaster lessons just now and one of the horses IVe been riding has the most fab walk to canter button, it’s a great feeling isn’t it :D
 
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Wooweeeee! I agre it is a lovely transition - gets ride of all that jiggly sitting trot stuff, and usually the canter is much nicer as from walk they have to pick up their front end better (by using back end) to get the canter - can often just run or fall into canter from trot as the speed is there
 
Fantastic well done! Ale and I are still concentrating on trot to halt, halt to trot. Walk to canter is next but think we need to do more prep before we try it :)
 
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You inspired me Chev. Decided to set myself a target of inserting canter into the 6 trot 6 walk routine. Will force me to go into canter without there being a corner. Frightening to me as I still have no clue about canter leads. And clearly a new concept to Lady the RS pony.
Not sure why you can't ride canter to walk. It comes natural to us who learned to ride as adults. The horse usually does it unaided. I was told it was rare to get a novice rider who could do canter to an active trot.
 
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It was a fantastic feeling :D

Skib - we did a couple of canter/trot transitions which were definitely harder than canter/walk. But we did it! I basically had to sit back, bring my shoulders together, elbows in and half-halt to maintain impulsion in trot. The difficulties with going from walk to canter for me were mainly getting a good enough walk to just go straight from walk to canter.
 
chev said:
The difficulties with going from walk to canter for me were mainly getting a good enough walk to just go straight from walk to canter.
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Absolutely Chev. As some of you know, our family learned to ride at a school where canter was always taught from walk.
However, as a matter of interest, I hacked always at another yard and as a joke an RI riding out with me would suggest I ride Maisie from walk to canter. She was such a time bomb in her youth that is was easy. I was even asked to do halt canter once.
I was then asked to do it on a couple of other horses out hacking and then it became a routine goal on successive lesson horses. None of these horses was used to doing walk to canter and my experience is that it isnt hard to teach them. It usually takes me a few lessons to get the feel of the horse - but the time is needed more for me than for the horse, I feel. To get canter from walk or halt, the rider has to really want canter and allow the float forward. And for me that means feeling easy about cantering that particular horse. Anyone who owns their horse should have no difficulty at all. If you ride trot canter transitions on a 20 m. circle and when the horse is nicely going ofrward, come back to walk briefly and then ask for canter again, the horse will do it.
Because the horse by that time has it in its mind that your are looking for canter. And any battles about getting canter are already behind you.
 
One thing RI said was that it was crucial to give clear canter cues rather than just "speeding up". So it went walk on, gaining impulsion using legs evenly on each side, then work forward into the bridle, then outside leg behind the girth, inside one on the girth and ask for canter. I got it first time.

Back to walk was a bit harder. Half halts to balance him then sit up and back. Shoulder blades together and stretch upwards. He understood what was being asked of him but it was a case of trying to stop him from falling on his nose while he did it. We did eventually get him a bit more bouncy!
 
I think walk-canter also really teaches the feel of "thinking it". The most effective way of asking is the strength of the thought of doing it, the energy inside you which transfers to the horse. You have to really believe you want the transition - as you get to know a horse or if it is flighty anyway then this doesn't apply so much, but you do really have to believe it is what you want.
 
I was searching canter transition and found this. I'm struggling when practising trot to canter. Think I will try this on Frankie. Captain was excellent at it when I tried it with him. <3
 
All of our RS ponies/horses can do walk to canter, many can do rein back to canter however very few even with an advanced rider can do canter to walk correctly as that requires true collection and balance. One of my favourie RS exercises is x strides of tot ,x strides of walk, x strides of canter and repeat round school
 
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