Fixing the dreaded "tranter" in an OTTB mare

[eventer215]

I have a drop dead gorgeous OTTB mare. Amazing personality, very sweet and personable, super fun to ride, has never refused any jump, so very brave yet also quiet to the fences, which is a really nice combination. She is a very nice mover, could actually be quite lovely actually, with an unbelievable canter.

The catch? She “tranters” (half trot, half canter) when you start out on her in the ring and/or does a tiny pony trot until you give in and let her canter a bit. Then, she will usually do a lovely trot. She is basically (quietly, not in a hot way) anticipating the canter, and really likes to canter… She is not unsound, I have had her evaluated extensively by my vet. In fact, she could easily pass a typical flex & jog, see the horse lunge or move at liberty type vetting.

I should add, that if you have multiple riders ride her in succession, she will do this when each new rider gets on her, until she gets to canter.

I have tried lunging prior to riding, trot poles, two point, hacking, etc all to no avail. It has improved the most with trot poles and an insistence that we only trot, but it is certainly not eradicated. (and once a new rider is on her, forget it)

I bought this mare as a resale project, and as you can imagine, showing her for sale is quite a challenge. She is absolutely lovely in every other way and has a lot of value just in her genuine personality and quiet love of jumping, but getting a potential buyer to see this as a simple quirk and not something further has been tough.

Any way to train this out of her?

[Tiffani_B]

It’s probably a balance and attention thing. I have a horse that does something similar. He gets what I call “over collected” even though it’s not real collection. He’s behind the bit and has dropped his back, so he can’t trot in balance but doesn’t have enough speed to actually canter. So he does this weird tranter gait.

The easiest way to stop it is to distract him from his anticipation by getting him off balance. What works for him is doing sudden direction changes, like a small serpentine, and driving him FORWARD. The serpentine will throw him off balance enough that he HAS to trot. Once he’s in a solid trot the demand of FORWARD gets his mind on ME and not the anticipation of what’s coming. If I ask for forward before he’s properly balanced and in the bridle, I get a very sloppy canter, usually with some cross cantering thrown in for good measure. So I never just urge him forward out of it until I can balance him in a solid trot first.

Luckily he’s doing it less and less. Now, when he feels me shift him to start the serpentine, he just goes into a steady trot, so I don’t have to do much more than that most days.

[yourcolorfuladdictio]

[QUOTE=Tiffani B;8681769]
It’s probably a balance and attention thing. I have a horse that does something similar. He gets what I call “over collected” even though it’s not real collection. He’s behind the bit and has dropped his back, so he can’t trot in balance but doesn’t have enough speed to actually canter. So he does this weird tranter gait.

The easiest way to stop it is to distract him from his anticipation by getting him off balance. What works for him is doing sudden direction changes, like a small serpentine, and driving him FORWARD. The serpentine will throw him off balance enough that he HAS to trot. Once he’s in a solid trot the demand of FORWARD gets his mind on ME and not the anticipation of what’s coming. If I ask for forward before he’s properly balanced and in the bridle, I get a very sloppy canter, usually with some cross cantering thrown in for good measure. So I never just urge him forward out of it until I can balance him in a solid trot first.

Luckily he’s doing it less and less. Now, when he feels me shift him to start the serpentine, he just goes into a steady trot, so I don’t have to do much more than that most days.[/QUOTE]

This. My mare would keep picking up speed if I gave her a straight away and would break into a run-type canter. I actually school the long sides in shoulder-in and ask for a steeper shoulder-in when she tries to pick up speed. If I need more control I will put in a circle to bring her back. If she is particularly eager in the walk, I put as many loops in a serpentine as possible, on the short side so she can’t build up speed.

[Scratch_N_Dent]

This was the first sign of lameness in my horse and one other I know of. My horse only did it when he was first asked to trot out and generally only in deeper footing. In the end we discovered damage within the foot (navicular bone changes and damage to DFT and impar ligament).

Hoping yours is just behavioural.

[eventer215]

[QUOTE=Tiffani B;8681769]
It’s probably a balance and attention thing. I have a horse that does something similar. He gets what I call “over collected” even though it’s not real collection. He’s behind the bit and has dropped his back, so he can’t trot in balance but doesn’t have enough speed to actually canter. So he does this weird tranter gait.

The easiest way to stop it is to distract him from his anticipation by getting him off balance. What works for him is doing sudden direction changes, like a small serpentine, and driving him FORWARD. The serpentine will throw him off balance enough that he HAS to trot. Once he’s in a solid trot the demand of FORWARD gets his mind on ME and not the anticipation of what’s coming. If I ask for forward before he’s properly balanced and in the bridle, I get a very sloppy canter, usually with some cross cantering thrown in for good measure. So I never just urge him forward out of it until I can balance him in a solid trot first.

Luckily he’s doing it less and less. Now, when he feels me shift him to start the serpentine, he just goes into a steady trot, so I don’t have to do much more than that most days.[/QUOTE]

Thanks! I will try this!

[eventer215]

[QUOTE=yourcolorfuladdiction;8681785]
This. My mare would keep picking up speed if I gave her a straight away and would break into a run-type canter. I actually school the long sides in shoulder-in and ask for a steeper shoulder-in when she tries to pick up speed. If I need more control I will put in a circle to bring her back. If she is particularly eager in the walk, I put as many loops in a serpentine as possible, on the short side so she can’t build up speed.[/QUOTE]

I like the idea of shoulder-in, also thinking maybe leg yielding or other lateral work could help. Thanks!

[eventer215]

[QUOTE=Scratch N Dent;8682499]
This was the first sign of lameness in my horse and one other I know of. My horse only did it when he was first asked to trot out and generally only in deeper footing. In the end we discovered damage within the foot (navicular bone changes and damage to DFT and impar ligament).

Hoping yours is just behavioural.[/QUOTE]

I agree, seems like must be some soreness somewhere but I’ve had her worked up extensively by my vet without finding anything. And she flexes/jogs sound on pavement. Only with a rider is she funny.

[ivy62]

Have you had a good saddle fitter out? If it is only with the rider maybe there is something that bothers her…

[JER]

I would try:

1. Letting her canter first as part of her warm-up. Nothing wrong with that. I’ve had horses who prefer this. If she has a pony trot, make sure that you don’t shorten her neck as you’re warming up. Reins might feel a bit slack but the idea is to ride her into it.

2. Keep her ribcage engaged throughout. If you have a horse’s ribcage engaged – basically, this means having a soft bend off the inside leg – it’s unlikely that they’ll tranter. You might need to walk first for a little while, focusing on her ribcage moving from side to side as you bend, making sure she’s listening to your inside leg. The idea is that she needs to learn to bend her body, not brace it.

[bauhaus]

[QUOTE=JER;8682822]
I would try:

1. Letting her canter first as part of her warm-up. Nothing wrong with that. I’ve had horses who prefer this. If she has a pony trot, make sure that you don’t shorten her neck as you’re warming up. Reins might feel a bit slack but the idea is to ride her into it.

2. Keep her ribcage engaged throughout. If you have a horse’s ribcage engaged – basically, this means having a soft bend off the inside leg – it’s unlikely that they’ll tranter. You might need to walk first for a little while, focusing on her ribcage moving from side to side as you bend, making sure she’s listening to your inside leg. The idea is that she needs to learn to bend her body, not brace it.[/QUOTE]

^^ This. My mare (not an OTTB AFAIK but a very tense probably-TBxsomething else) went through a phase of stepping away from the mounting block in a canter. If I asked her to walk immediately we ended up in a fight more often than not. I do dressage and my dressage saddle wasn’t very good for starting off standing up off her back a little to let her get it out of her system, so I found an inexpensive Kieffer AP saddle that let me get off her back when necessary but also put me in a good position to sit when I could. That ended up helping all of her issues with tension because she figured out quickly that I was totally relaxed, wasn’t going to pick on her and using up all that extra energy before she was warmed up just made her tired faster.

[bornfreenowexpensive]

It improves after she canters? Then just canter very early in your warm up. This is very normal. I’ve had several horses that did best if I cantered early. Some who wanted me to canter up off their back too. As she gets further along, it will likely improve but she may always be one that you warm up with a bit of canter then go back to you trot work. There is no rule that you must trot first as your warm up. As long as you dot go galloping out of control as her warm up…no issues at all with doing a bit of canter warm up.

In other words, I don’t make a big deal over this. It is not a fight worth having. Just continue to train her, and it will improve as she gets further along but there is nothing wrong with doing an early short canter as part of your warm up…and you will likely have a less tense horse and can get into training better sooner.

[fordtraktor]

I had a horse that basically didn’t trot when I got him. Ex barrel racer. My GP trainer at the time evaled the horse for me and told me he would be one of my best horses ever, go home and teach him how to trot the first time I hauled him down.

Time and patience. You just calmly keep bringing him back. Put your leg on, ride inside leg to outside rein and start working on the rhythm. Be patient and soft and gentle.

Agree that it can be very useful to just let him have a bit of canter first.

[gumtree]

Assuming the obvious has been ruled out, physical issues. Assuming she was in training as a racehorse for while. IMO and experience this is a residual habit from her days as a racehorse. If you spend time at the track during training hours you will see a lot of this.

Some horses, a lot of horse going out to train are pretty on their toes. Most trainers instruct the rider to “jog” X distance before moving off. The horses would rather just break into a gallop. Riders do their best to keep them in a “jog”. Which is basically what you are describing. Trainers, riders don’t have the time nor inclination to “school” them properly So it becomes a habit.

These types I don’t don’t do much of anything else other then to re-train them to walk, trot, canter. I have the good fortune of having a large field to work with. 1 mile around the perimeter so I/we can keep them focused on what is being asked without distractions and the consent turns of working in a ring.

I haven’t found any “tricks” short cuts other than a lot of boring flat work. Some horses come around quickly others not so much.

I’ll follow this to see if others have come up better suggestions.

[enjoytheride]

With a horse like this most riders don’t want to add leg because they think the horse will canter off. It seems counter intuitive but it does work, ask my trainer! Put leg on and push her forward at the trot until she trots. Be aware of your seat and don’t give in and follow if she breaks. Bring her back down to the trot because it wasn’t what you wanted. When she trots right let her center.

If you let her canter rght away it solves your frustration but doesn’t fix the issue.

[eventer215]

Thank you for the comments, everybody!

I’m happy to report that I’ve had two successful rides following a lot of the advice above.

I decided to insist on no cantering for the entire ride, I think the main problem was she fooled me into taking my leg off, she would pony trot or trantor, and I’d just give in and let her canter. Lots of lateral work at the walk and trot (I really liked the bending rib cage suggestion) and after quite a bit of a hissy fit, BOOM, beautiful, stretchy trot. Then she got lots of pats, a bath, and lunch (the way to a gal’s heart, right??). Today I repeated and the resistance time was cut in half, and her lateral work much improved.

Fingers crossed we are down the right path! Thanks everybody!

[findeight]

How many other people ride her? You mention she does it with each successive rider? Who else is riding her? Often times its best to stick with a single rider until a horse masters anything related to self carriage/balance. Everybody feels different to the horse, weight distribution, overall balance, firmness of aids etc. it confuses a Green horse whose not yet completely sure of what it’s doing.

Not saying it’s you but overuse of draw reins before the horse understands forward can get them trantering from lack of impulsion. That really takes a whole lot longer to fix then it did for them to inadvertently learn it.