I think this is one of those “listen to the horse and stick with what works” things. My old TB eventer warmed up much much better if I got off his back and went for little hand gallop after walk portion of warm up. Then trot circles, then figure 8’s that gradually got tighter.
Current horse likes a more traditional warm up.
Interesting thread. To answer the question, it just depends.
In warmer weather, my horse can be a little pokey – he just poops along at a walk and does his imitation of a WP jog trot. 
Asking for a canter helps energize/improve the trot and get his mind focused.
This winter, asking for the canter too soon in warm up is asking to get bucked off, even if I’ve longed him. He’s just much tighter due to the temps and less exercise. And he can stay locked up at the trot, so we walk (nice forward walk), asking him to reach for the bit and do lateral work until he releases a little. Same thing at the trot, then canter. But sometimes we walk for 20 minutes before he releases and starts to relax.
Well thanks again everyone, we again started out at the canter on tuesday (had off yesterday because we had a cattle drive), and it was wonderful, again. We actually got some lateral work, not great but he hasn’t done it for awhile. So I will definently stick with canter warm-ups. I was taught like so many others the traditional way of warming up, walk trot then canter in both directions, and that’s how my TB does it, so this kinda threw me off and I just kept thinking well do we just start out running or do we walk and loosen up first so I was a little iffy that I was doing things right.
Canter warm up
I find if I am looking for my horse to be more forward (if he’s being poky) cantering definitely helps early in the warm up. However, if he’s all fired up, cantering will only lead to a rodeo if I ask too early! :eek:
I don’t post much on this forum, but the title caught my eye.
My horse is also a walk/canter warm up horse. He was injured and off for a year but even before that, he prefered the canter first instead of trot.
So I walk for about 10 minutes - first on a loose rein to let him stretch, then gather him up and do circles, serpentines, changes of direction, leg yields, spirals, etc. Then we canter… 2 laps or so on a nice loose rein to let him stretch. Walk to switch directions and repeat. Walk for another minute or so.
Then I start his trot work. Then canter work. Then walk again for a few minutes. By the time I do all of this, his walk is very forward and swing’y’ (probably about 20 minutes into the ride). Then some more trot work and his trot is lovely. But if you try and trot too soon… he does the WP thing and that hind hitch shows up.
It’s what works for him. I don’t have an issue with doing this. I actually loosen up better if we walk and canter too. We both struggle with the trot. 
I’m another one with a walk/canter horse (her best gait is her canter). My horse is also starts out on the stiff side and it takes time to get her back swinging. So I usually walk for 15 minutes on the long rein, then pick up the reins and do some leg yields on the walk, some walk/halt transitions, walk on the diagonal and transitions form medium walk to free walk and back to medium walk. Then I do a very slow stretchy trot just for a couple of circles or shallow, snaky serpentines to stretch/relax her back a bit. If I sent her trotting “forward” too early, she will lock her back and continue to be stiff and resistant through the most of the ride. I also use this trot to see how even she feels - I’m a bit worried now to just go right to the canter, b/c you can’t really notice on canter when a horse is just slightly off. Then I pick up a very forward, stretched down canter and do lots of transitions. That takes about 15 minutes. I go back to walk and work on turn on the hunches (love them) and rein back. After that we start a real work of 2/3 level on canter for 10 minutes: work on some half pass, 10m circles, medium canter, changes. Then a walk break again and finish up with a 10 min of the sitting trot with a lateral work, medium trot and halts. As you can see majority of my riders are spend cantering or walking.
That’s on the good day. We also have our stiff days when we spend the whole ride just working on relaxing the back, stretching down and becoming more supple – in those days it’s Training Level movements for the whole ride for us. We also have lazy days, when I just feel like she doesn’t have any energy left and I play it safe and take her for a trail hack on a walk and call it a day. I’m still just praying that she will stay sound and taking it day by day.
I tried to ride her conventionally, with lots of forward trot, but she wasn’t able to stay 100% sound. Long warm up, forward canter and lots of walk breaks seems to help to keep her sounder. Draw back of a long warm up: we don’t really have much time left to work on actual movements. Another draw back that she doesn’t look supple and animated from the get go, but I have to remind myself to be patient, not push her, and give the time for a proper warm up that she needs. With proper warm up she looks like 2 different horses at the beginning and at the end of the ride (at the end is much better).
[QUOTE=ToN Farm;2976478]
… I read that from several respected sources (which I will post if I can find them).[/QUOTE]
you better 
Dressage Art:
Here’s one resource I found. This pertains to horses with back problems.
Be diligent about warming up; in sport horses, start at the walk, then progress to the canter before the trot. During the canter, the vertebral column goes through just one flexion/extension cycle per stride, while at the trot, the vertebral column experiences two cycles per stride.
The above came from:
http://www.austinequine.com/article01.html
I’ve spent the last couple several months researching back problems, so I have many links and articles.
I’ll put my hand up as another that has a canter regime for a horse. It really is an individual thing. My ISH is pokey until hes had a canter. My warmup is a walk up our driveway and back (10 mins) then into the arena and a canter in two point. Hes then ready to work.
If I did the same with his half brother I would blow his pea brain. He has to go lots of walk and some lateral work before I can even get him to relax his back at all. If I start to trot before I have done some lateral he will have stiff back and locked jaw.
Every horse is an individual.
This has been a timely and informative thread for me. I have a third level mare who takes some time to get to really use her back. Last night I walked about 15 minutes, then went right to canter. The difference was amazing. She loosened up much faster, seemed happier and my warmup was much more effective overall. I got some of the nicest collected work I have ever ridden on her last night, despite really cold temps. I might well be a canter warmup convert.
interesting thread. Coming from a hunter/jumper start myself then embarking on dressage after, I was surprised myself how many dressage riders walk and walk and walk before they start to trot and trot and trot and THEN canter! I walk one lap around and get right into a forward canter for my warmup on most of my horses. (especially the stallion as he tends to want to be behind the leg) I find it gets them thinking forward and most horses are more comfortable in canter than in trot. Even when I lunge my stallion, he pops right into canter immediatley, I feel it shows where they are most comfortable warming up in what gait they prefer on the lunge.
But mostly I canter first to get them thinking forward.
I think Frodo’s trot improves after some cantering. I warm up with plenty of walk, then trot then canter because canter is his least developed gait right now and I want to establish rhythm and balance first. However, I longe him first many days if he is particularly UP, on those days, often we canter first because he has to get his whirly-doos out. :lol: Bugs used to warm-up at the canter first everyday and now that she is retired and arthritic, when I ride, ALL we do is walk and canter, trot is too uncomfortable for her. If she offers a canter, I let her. It helps her so much.
[QUOTE=ToN Farm;2978269]
I’ve spent the last couple several months researching back problems, so I have many links and articles.[/QUOTE]
Would you mind sharing what else you found about the back? My horse is very tight in the back, so I’m quite interested in that subject.
The one I’m riding these days (I don’t own him) is a middle-aged Canadian WB who has his stiff and sore moments, especially during the winter. He’s a lower-level eventer, but always does best at dressage when he competes. He starts with 5 to 10 minutes of W-T-C, in that order and in both directions, on a very loose rein. His owner has started adding a few very small jumps (no higher than 2 feet, and usually 12 to 15 inch crossrails) after that, because it helps him soften a lot. She’s had him for years and only figured this out recently. It makes it much easier to collect him and get him moving through his back. The way we have it set up right now is that there is a jump that can be incorporated into a 20 m circle but the circle can also be shifted away and not have the jump in it. He is definitely one of those horses that does not do a nice (collected, on the bit) walk until he has a nice canter and nice trot going.
For my old horse who does have arthritis in his spine as well as a plethora of other ailments, I start out at a walk on a loose rein until he feels pretty loose, then we’ll go into a nice forward canter, usually with me off his back in a two-point (or the closest equivalent I can get in a dressage saddle :)).
My mare I start out at a trot because she’s really uncomfortable with the canter still and she’s a terror if we start at the walk. If we go right into the trot she relaxes and moves forward nicely.
My young gelding it depends on the day. We usually do a few minutes of exercises at the walk designed to get him listening to me and thinking, “Ok, work time!”, then if he’s relaxed we’ll go right into the canter because he does usually do better for the rest of the session if we do. However, if he’s a little ball of energy just waiting to explode, we do transitions and trot work before cantering. When he’s that wound up he thinks canter=playtime and then the rest of our ride is spent trying to remind him this is dressage not rodeo.
I’ve worked with a lot of horses and usually have a different warmup for each, as they all do better with different routines at different times in their lives, IME.
I love this thread! What a great discussion. One horse I ride benefits from canter first. He is 19. With him being so fit and responsive (we’re at an indoor for the winter months and he’s getting ridden a lot) we don’t do the canter right away. I do still notice marked improvement in the trot after canter. Much more swing! Another horse I am working with gets warmed up on the lunge line. He’s 18, arthritic, and has been out of work for about 6 months. If we do some canter work on the lunge, I definitely find that it allows him to use him back and his arthritic hind end more. The key for him to make the canter warmup worthwhile is to make sure it is FORWARD. He’s not as “Go GO GOOO! What’s NEXT?” as the other horse I ride. Two very different rides, but the canter warmup works for both!
I too have been enjoying this thread, and since we are in the middle of winter up here in New England…even better!
We just very recently brought up a former Advanced Level event horse for my daughter as a Schoolmaster at the lower levels. This horse can look funky at the trot particularly to the right if he is not really warmed up. We are warming him up with some walk…today took a nice walk up a good conditioning hill, it was actually warm enough and not too icy, and then I had my daughter canter quite a bit and really open up as best she could in the indoor! What a difference…not one funky step today. We did just inject his hocks last week and he seems to be improving daily from that…he really needed it. From what I understand, it’s never been done to him. Pretty unusual for a horse that’s done the high levels like he has, so he is a “clean slate”, just wish someone had intervened a little earlier on his joint maintenance.
Canter is a very good warmup for many many horses.
cheekyhorse, I don’t think all dressage riders ‘walk and walk and walk and walk’. I think ideas about warmup are totally different between less and more experienced riders, where you usually see a more active warmup.
Starting with jumping!
I had a young horse once who took a good 45-50 minutes to nicely warm up before i could get any sort of decent dressage work out of him. he was somewhat stiff and very inattentive until he really warmed up. Until one day, out of frustration, I just started jumping him over little fences early in the warmup. The horse totally changed, became relaxed, supple and very much on the aids…so from that time on my warmup consisted of some cavaletti and jumping work (in a dressage saddle!). www.prairiepinesfarm.com
[QUOTE=slc2;2983178]
Canter is a very good warmup for many many horses.
cheekyhorse, I don’t think all dressage riders ‘walk and walk and walk and walk’. I think ideas about warmup are totally different between less and more experienced riders, where you usually see a more active warmup.[/QUOTE]
uh, I never said that ALL of them do. I just noticed that ALOT of people around here seem to walk alot before going into active warmup. Experienced or not experienced, I’ve seen alot of them doing that, not that they ALL do. I dunno, maybe it’s a trend around here or something…LOL!
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