Favorite exercises to help collect the canter

[RTF]

I have a large, draft type horse that is solid training/first level. I am Working towards my silver medal in the next two years ( on a different horse). I have a fairly good understanding of riding, training, and strength.

So the above horse has a really nice canter. She is large and heavy, with a tendency of not being able to collect, compress her canter steps. She’s can be lazy, and I know this will take time, repetition and strength. What are some of you favorite exercises to start to shorten and collect the canter. I get some great ideas on here, and I know some of you have lovely tips! She does have a wonderful walk to canter, but really struggles on sitting back into the walk. We are playing with counter canter shallow loops. She is capable of doing the 15 meter circles, but does not have the balance for the smaller ones. My goal is to have her canter work solid at second by the end of the year.

[alibi_18]

Be really cautious not to over do any of this and make sure your horse is physically ready. Draft/draft crosses might have/develop hocks issues more rapidly/easily due to conformation. You don’t want to hurt your horse.

You’ll want to develop more sitting a few steps at time. So transitions within the canter are useful.
Take you working canter around the whole and at times on the long side, shorten the strides until it’s more collected, do 2-3 steps, praise and go out of it.

Canter squares.

Deeper corners.

Counter canter a lot.

Leg yield in canter. True one, not just sideways leaning with shoulders.

[merrygoround]

So nice to have a goal, but then you are working with horses. Not that your goal is unattainable but don’t set a timeframe.

I find that the spiral circle is useful, as long as you the rider are aware of how much lift you need as the circle gets smaller to keep in the canter in rhythm. The rider first gets to feel the difference as the circle gets smaller, and then later uses that feel to get a more collected canter as time goes by.

Another exercise is to lengthen down the long side, then at the letter sit up and make your core and body keep the canter as you swing into a 10-15 m circle.

Another to help with canter-walk, is start a 10-15 meter circle from the wall, as you come back a very strong, from your body half halt down into the walk, This will take several tries, and a lot of core grabbing,

Usually these exercises are done with a 10 meter circle but due to her size, at first, settle for what you can get.

It is not unusual for the horse to have an easier time with the walk to canter, than the canter to walk.

[RedHorses]

10-10-10 from 101Dressage Exercises. Canter ten strides, trot ten, canter ten, walk ten and repeat many times.

When you apply your collecting aids is very helpful as well. I find that applying the aids as the horse’s shoulders come up - this is the moment of suspension when the horse is reaching forward with their hind legs - and then simply allowing the canter stride without pushing, holding or dropping to be very helpful. I think of asking the horse to reach forward just a little further with the hind legs before putting their feet down. Doing this for several strides in a row, then allowing the canter to flow for a few strides before repeating the collecting aids for several strides can really help the horse understand what I want.

[lenapesadie]

What an interesting thread! Very educational. I would second the cantering squares, a favorite exercise of several instructors I rode with. One way that stood out to me a super helpful was to make the sides of the square with ground poles. A nice visual cue for horse and rider. Plus in the corners where the poles don’t meet you can change from inside the box to outside the box. Best of luck!

[pluvinel]

My philosophy starts with that a horse knows how to be a horse…you cannot impose anything on a horse…it has to come from and be offered by the horse. So see what you have before embarking on any program.

Draft horses were bred for pulling. Ergo, they lean into the collar or the breastplate which puts them on the forehand.

With that said, one of the best piaffe’s I’ve seen came from a Belgian that was a former Amish plow horse.

My suggestion is to go ahead and see if you can see your horse at liberty…see how it moves. Perhaps a precursor, is to start to develop the language so that you can ask the horse to stop and turn.

See how the horse behaves with it’s own god-given abilities without a rider on its back when asked to canter and make changes in direction. This has to be a controlled affair…NOT just chasing the horse in a pen.

I went to see a prospect at a major breeding/training location that everyone here would know. The horse was free-schooled in the indoor…gave a beautiful gaboingy trot…BUT…when asked to canter, it cantered down the long side but once it got into the corner it did not have the innate sense of balance to shift its weight backwards, engage the inside hind, and make the turn on the short side without breaking into a trot.

As a starter exercise, I would start with walk-canter-walk…if you have that ok. come back to talk.

You will probably see that the first few strides of canter are light and get progressively heavier…Do NOT canter more than a stride or two before asking for the walk. Ask for the horse to walk…keep the horse in a collected walk… and then reward.

Get the horse to understand that you want only a few strides of canter and pretty soon it will start to expect the walk transition and maintain its own collection. This is how the horse offers collection. It does NOT come from the rider.

[TheGroomStall]

While the goal may be to collect the canter, don’t neglect the extensions as well! The push behind needed to extend helps strengthen for collections. I usually do a few laps of a working canter to warm up, then alternate between an extended and collected canter. Think the 10-10-10 as above but within canter. Depending on the horse and how they feel for the day I might do a bit of a hand gallop beforehand to get them forward and in front of my leg. The hand gallop helps wake up the lazy horses as well, they usually get a bit more perked up after going for a yahoo around the arena.

[RTF]

Lots of great tips here. She’s actually an Irish draft. Although she is a big mare, she has an uphill build with lots of swing to her gaits.

This has been a slow progression of fitness, and I am so excited to finally be outside in my big ring. Thanks for the suggestions so far! I am hopeful that once we improve the canter work, that I will start to play with and introduce changes.

[piedmontfields]

It can take a shocking amount of walk-canter-walk-canter over time to develop the strength for collection. I like w-c-w-c because it teaches the horse to rotate the pelvis under–which is the basis of collection. Counter canter is also useful, but don’t sacrifice quality for the pattern.

[XXS]

circle, walk, shoulder-fore, canter, haunches-in to prepare for transition to walk (thinking of a large pirouette)

[RTF]

I have never thought of riding a haunches in feeling to collect to prepare for the walk transition. Thank you for a new idea!

[pluvinel]

@RTF

I have never thought of riding a haunches in feeling to collect to prepare for the walk transition. Thank you for a new idea!

It is an exercsise to get the horse to engage the inside hind to support the down transition

[Parrotnutz]

17 Hand Clyde/Hackney cross owner. Building strength for collection takes a lot of time for these big guys! When I got mine 1 year ago he really didn’t have a canter as he was doing a bit of field hunting, too with a man who didn’t really do dressage, lol. Lots of transitions at Every gait taught him to use his hind end. Also install a really good half halt. then lots of canter transitions , canter to halt, canter to walk, etc. One thing that has been hindering me is MY timing of my half halt. I tend to stop the motion and he breaks due to my timing. My trainer says it’s like riding an FEI horse (I never have). She said…You must ride every canter stride, cannot just sit there, lol. Its been a real learning curve for me. In the transitions downward she told me to visualize and think piaffe, for me it works and I can get his hind end under him that way. When I get the collection its wonderful! When I watch my trainer ride him I drool, but hay, she is a gold metalist and I am a 60 something rider, lol. Oh, with my guy the most important thing is to make him 'Hot" which I can, he does have heat and its a good heat, not a crazy heat. Once he is hot its all much easier. I hope this helps!!

Adriane

[Tyrus_Mom]

I have a Friesian/Percheron cross gelding who also had problems with cantering when I got him. I second Parrotnutz’s suggestion that a lot of transitions help them. When I first started working him at canters I would lunge him and concentrate on several trot to canter to trot transitions every morning before riding him. We no longer have to do that. Now I work on all his transitions from various gaits to canter on board daily. He’s getting better slowly.

I too am a 60something rider without the strength and stamina I used to have and it is difficult to push the bigger horses into collection. (I don’t ask for much at this point, he’s still a baby mind and progression is slow.) I have enjoyed all of the input in this thread. Thank you everyone.

It seems like the bigger horses don’t think about where their feet are so much. I was thinking that taking my guy over ground poles and very low jumps might help him think about his feet placement. Have not done it yet, thinking about it is as far as I’ve gotten. Those big dinner plate feet of his need to get more delicate…or as delicate as they can get with regards to placement.

I am only dreaming of one day getting flying changes… was worried he would probably not be able to until I saw a couple of videos of the bigger guys doing it. I don’t know if tempis are in his future, but eventually I think he’ll be able to do a flying change. (We are far and away from it now, just day dreaming it… with hope in my heart.:))

And yes, I too have to ride every stride of his canter pushing with my seat or he runs out of gas! I do get a bit of collection if I stop him, back him up so he’s more on his hindquarters before I ask for the canter.

Oh, I do have a tip on getting more energy from the big slow kids. Last week I went on a trail ride with someone with a very bad back and we could only walk for the entire trail ride. By the time we got back my boy felt like he was going to boil over with energy. On the trail ride I could feel him asking “can we trot up this hill?” No. “Can we trot now?” No…“how about now?” it was no, no and no again. When we got back to the ranch and I went into the arena to work he was ready to go. Had the nicest trots and canters that I usually have to push to get. So if you take your horse on a trail ride for 45 minutes to an hour and force them to walk the entire time, they might show more energy in the arena afterward. Frustration energy… but energy nonetheless. (I’ll take what I can get sometimes!)

[purplnurpl]

Do you jump?

bounce gymnastics. Big ones.

[Aeris]

I definitely found with my Percheron/Hackney that the secret was for her to learn power in the canter didn’t mean throwing her shoulder down against the contact. I found that doing 45 degree angled leg yield on the wall at the canter kept her from being able to use her front strength and momentum against me while forcing her to stay active with the hind legs and bring them underneath. The trick is that I had to keep her in a true, 3 beat canter and not let her back down to a tranter :lol: This is also a good exercise for the big/puller breeds who use their neck and shoulders to fight because you can practice swapping the bend from a travers and back to a no-bend 45 degree angle. If they go to throw their shoulder down when you ask for the bend, it will be very hard for them to keep cantering.

[Trotpastme]

Canter walk/Canter halt/ Halt canter/Walk. Canter.
Repeat and keep a good contact with the mouth

[Trotpastme]

@piedmontfields

It can take a shocking amount of walk-canter-walk-canter over time to develop the strength for collection. I like w-c-w-c because it teaches the horse to rotate the pelvis under–which is the basis of collection. Counter canter is also useful, but don’t sacrifice quality for the pattern.

Right on👍

[Willy_Von_Whompers]

Super interesting thread. Thank you. I am working with (not my own horse) another bigger chap and getting him to take weight behind and collect the canter stride is very hard. I’m never sure how much is my issues with timing the half halts or his issues with just being big and very comfortable NOT taking weight behind. The galloping forward and coming back in the corners seems to work well, and his walk canter is good. The canter to walk…meh and the canter thru trot to walk…meh again. I can count down thru 10 and by the time I get to 5 we are in a lumbering on the forehand trot.

Can someone maybe explain the cantering a square. I mean it sounds self-explanatory but…how exactly do I manage the corners on a gangly 17.2 hand tank? Am I riding sharp crisp corners or just sort of half halting and thinking more of a softer kind of turn?

[piedmontfields]

I was riding canter squares earlier this week, but on a nimble 15.2 Iberian who has pretty solid 2nd level balance! I actually think half-halt, sit, turn, half-halt, GO (I like to do a couple of strides of medium coming out of the corner before prepping for the next corner, so that my tight little horse doesn’t get stuck in collection).

For a horse just learning to sit more and carry themselves, it will feel like you are making a 10 m (or even 15 m) circle corner, rather than a 90 degree corner.