I own a wonderful Standardbred (never raced) who has a wonderful aptitude for dressage. When I bought him, he had almost no idea how to canter so just getting a canter was tough. Now he has a quiet canter with rhythm (which is a triumph in itself), I still find he inverts through the transition from trot to canter. He is very sensitive and can sense the canter transition coming so I do practice a lot of upward and downward to keep him guessing. He is 15.1 and quite crafty and can invert in a split moment then settle back into the bit. He goes in a regular snaffle bridle and a Nathe bit- he has a very soft mouth.
Does he know shoulder in and haunches in yet? To my mare’s stiff side (where she tends to fall in) I try to do a couple steps of HI, and then just try to lift my seat and put myself into canter, rather than applying a big aid. As long as she is forward enough, this seems to help her just transition into the canter without getting tense and inverting. To her stiff side, I do a little SI and then the same forward and thinking of canter. With a quick, sensitive horse, I might do fewer transitions and allow him to relax, and then just flow into it at a natural moment. The crisp, on-the-spot transitions can be perfected once he’s able to stay through the back reliably in the transition.
Even if he’s not ready for SI and HI at the trot yet, you can do a few steps in the walk of turning the shoulders in or the haunches in and back out, to get the pushing leg more under and carrying, then transition to trot, try to recreate that feeling a little bit before transitioning to the canter. The horses tend to relax a lot once they learn to get the leg under to start the canter in better balance.
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Thank you! We do some HI and SI but I will incorportate them into our transitions. I do notice how much lighter and more consistent he is in the bridle after I do both at walk and trot. He is significantly weaker going to the right SI and HI to the left.
I’m no expert but I like the serpentine with the walk/canter simple changes that’s in Second Level. Another I like is counting strides…so 5 strides of canter, 5 strides of walk, 5 strides of canter and so on. Same exercise can be done with transitions from collected-medium-collected , or from canter-walk-counter canter-walk.
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I love this exercise but each transition he will invert. I feel like I am strengthening the wrong area, which really shows under his neck area. I think I will post a video to show.
Hello fellow Standie owner!! I have a similar problem with mine, though his is from general weakness (raced for 12 years). He’s still learning where all his legs go at the canter.
My two cents being it’s not uncommon for an inversion at the trot-to-canter depart to indicate there is a lack of strength and following behind. When this happens I focus less on the transitions, and more on the quality of the gait prior to transition. Setting them up just right helps as well, see if he is better doing it from the walk, in a specific corner, serpentine, wherever. My own STB took lots and lots of cantering just to build him up to the point he was strong enough to carry himself without the inversion into the canter.
How much are you cantering him? It may be worth it to see if you can spend some time working on cantering more than walking/trotting, even doing something like cantering out in a field really helps build up the strength a horse needs to push off into the canter without inverting.
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From a 10m or 12m circle in trot, leg yield out to a 20m circle and as you hit your desired line in the bigger circle, transition up to canter. This really helped my guy years ago when he would invert and try to use his neck and head to help himself transition.
Probably not the popular idea but I’d consider a running martingale for the short term. My welsh cob does the same invert during the up and unfortunately the down too. The martingale is there to signal him 1/2 second earlier than my own brain can. In one week its helped tremendously. The benefit is that its only really there if he inverts, so it shouldn’t affect any other parts of your ride.
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The leg yield is the best exercise for this - either on a circle or from the second track to the rail and ask for canter. Do not focus so much on the leg yield - just try to get 2-3 steps and then ask for canter.
All the exercises suggested are good ones. I would add to the list, trot-canter-trot-canter transitions. But don’t do a strict number of strides when you first introduce this, as that can cause you to ask for the canter transition before you have a good, straight, connected trot.
In all the exercises, it’s vital to keep the horse straight and in outside rein before, during, and after the transition. If the horse is not straight, he will have to scramble to keep his balance and will throw his head up to help himself.
My friend’s Warmblood did this too - everything else was pretty good for Training/First level, but she inverted to the canter. I had her do a step or two of Shoulder in to the canter transition. It is more effective then Haunches in - and doesn’t teach them to throw their haunches in at the canter (which can become a problem too). Let yield can also help. Lateral work is your friend.
Shoulder-fore during tran to canter helped my current mare.
Prior horse had issues with walk/canter trans (was not built for dressage). Would launch from front end. One exercise that really helped was doing a figure 8, where 1 circle is very small (8m) and other circle is 20m. Walk the 8m circle going right. Straighten at the x point. Immediately ask for canter left and do 20m circle.
The quick change in bend seemed to help mine stand up straight during the canter depart, and helped her to physically be able to get her butt under for the strike off. Over time she developed the strength to do that on a straight line.
Usually, just comes down to straightness (unless it’s a pain response).
