Exercises to help with the collected canter?

[JackSprats_Mom]

So horse was very successful 1st level this year, finds all lateral work very easy, trot work is great. Her canter however is just ok.

The plan is to move up second or possible third next year but this will hugely depend on her canter work as a collected canter does not come easily for her.

Would love to hear some ideas on exercises to help collect the canter.

To give you an idea of what we currently do we work on walk/canter, canter/walk,10 strides canter 5 strides walk (repeat), counter- canter and 10 m circles with 3-4 strides canter to walk. She is ridden 4 days a week and is relatively fit.

[netg]

So we’re working on improving my mare’s collected canter right now and her strength has improved dramatically in the last month despite me and my flaws.

The start of this video shows where we were a couple weeks ago - she was just starting to get the idea of lifting in the withers more. https://youtu.be/XdOfBXr8SoA

She naturally has an excellent canter, but not a collected one, so getting that sit and lift in front has taken strength. She also finds lateral work very easy (at the trot). We have been playing with lateral work in the canter, doing shoulder fore/shoulder in and haunches in to straight, at will. For her, she has also needed to have the freedom to mistakenly come above the bit at times as she has worked on figuring out how to sit and lift the front end. Yes, it’s her withers we want lifting, but she has needed to be able to make mistakes to figure out how to do it.

What is helping most is the walk-canter and canter-walk transitions, but really focusing on riding her hind end in them. A canter-walk with trot steps which really sits is preferable to one in which she lurches into a walk. We have been doing walk-jog transitions (not quite half steps as she physically isn’t quite there to be giving that much sit, but the feeling she is heading toward them) to get her more active and sitting behind before working on the canter transitions, and when she starts to feel like she wants to drop on her forehand again, we go back to them.

We have also did transitions in and out of the canter in shoulder in to help facilitate that collection and use of the hind end. It just makes sense to her, so we use that to help.

With collection really being the folding of the hind legs and lift in front to change to a more uphill balance, that work is getting her collecting. She also has the shorter and more active stride we want while maintaining high energy - more energy than she used to have in her working canter. I was shocked the first time I was talking to my trainer about collected canter and he had me in a working canter, then had me half halt upward and add a TON of energy. He said THAT is the canter from which the collected canter was going to come, and it felt as if she was working about 3x as hard as in her working canter. But that really is the energy level the collected canter has now.

[piedmontfields]

OP, you are doing lots of work that will contribute to your collected canter. I agree that keep the canter energy forward as she steps into walk is very helpful. Jeremy Steinberg talks about this as rotating the horse’s pelvis under you as you come into walk.

A very simple check in exercise I like is to canter on a 20 m circle in working canter. Count the number of strides to get around the circle. Then do a circle where you add strides to this base number (if your working canter is 18 strides, go for 22 strides or more). This works toward the collected side of the pendulum. Then try for fewer strides (say 15) as you extend the canter for a circle. And then repeat.

Over time, you will see that your number range will change.

I have the opposite challenge of needing to work very hard on the extended canter part of the work, but it’s the same general challenge

[MysticOakRanch]

I’m working on the same thing right now! I find I very seldom get off the circle, and am doing a lot of transitions within the gait - medium, collect, medium, collect, and then for a break, I go to lateral work in the canter (shoulder in, haunches in), which is stinking HARD, but it really lifts her canter.

I just did a clinic, and we did fast transitions (all on the circle), haunches in (in canter), walk, haunches out in counter canter, walk, haunches in, etc. This is NOT an exercise to do if you have problems with straightness! But we ended up with a really uphill, collected, crazy fun canter.

The other thing that is helpful is to start to ride canter squares - very collected for a few steps at the corner, 1/4 piro, then a few steps less collected straight, then another corner. It helps set both horse and rider up for real collection.

[dudleyc]

I’m with mysticOak - transitions within the gait. Especially working the medium and towards extended canter - these are a very important part of collection. Don’t go for big right away, but focus on the quality and balance of the transitions

[JackSprats_Mom]

Thanks all, sounds like I’m on the right path and got a few other tips here to try!

[merrygoround]

Transitions within the gait, walk canter transitions, lengthening down the long side into a 10m circle at the end (this will also insure that you can do a good lengthening , with a good collection at the end in a test).

For the rider, the trick is to keep your hips slow but strong and active, lifting from your core on the upbeat.

[2tempe]

I’ll second or third the transitions within the canter AND the square exercise. Another is to spiral in and out on a circle - have to collect more to get the circle smaller, then try to keep that canter as you ease back out.

[SendenHorse]

I was just going to say what nteg said- haunches in and out. It shortens the distance the hind leg travels. I was just doing this in the trot and it helped a ton.

Make sure you can keep accessing the 4 corners (legs) of the horse and the front and back “rubber bandy” feeling- I find that I need to do less forward and back in gait transitions and do more of “baby steps”-- too many steps of one or another was working against me- horse needed more adjustaility, more quickly.