Help me follow at the canter!

[SUNKIST090888]

My biggest issue lately has been my lack of following at the canter, and I’m not sure how to fix it. My trainer consistently tells me that I’m not following, that she can’t see my elbows moving, and that my outside rein/hand is always stuck/planted. It’s more often my left hand than my right, and if it’s not planted, it’s only following backwards but not forwards. She has had me ride with my reins upside down (driving rein) which she says LOOKS a lot better and that I am following, but when I look down I don’t see a difference, and I don’t feel a difference compared to when I ride with my reins correctly. I guess I need help figuring out how to feel/see the difference between correct and incorrect. I don’t have a recent video of myself riding yet, but I have arrangements for someone to video me next week. I know seeing myself and what I’m doing will help me a lot, but until then any tips/advice you guys have would be greatly appreciated!

Some background info:
There are two main horses I ride, one of which I’ve been riding the past 10 years. She has come a LONG way in her training, and I think some of my lack of following on her stems from years and years and years of incorrectly riding her canter (it used to be a head-in-the-air, running-on-the-forehand, not-going-to-stop-until-we-run-into-a-fence gallop), and needing to retrain myself and my muscle memory.

The second horse is much easier to ride at the canter, she kind of “locks” you in place and it’s just a very easy to sit, very light in your hands type of ride. The issue I have cantering her is that even though she has a bigger stride than the other horse, I have a hard time feeling the movement in her head to follow. It seems like we’re just kind of “in place” and there’s nothing there to follow?

I do have a very consistent contact with both horses when riding, but one is a heavier contact, and the other is an “almost not there” contact. I’ve done many lunge lessons with no reins working just on my seat, and I can SIT the canter, but as soon as my hands become involved I can’t figure out how to move them! My trainer is very helpful at giving suggestions and letting me know when I am following/when I’m not, but I just can’t seem to grasp knowing the difference myself as everything feels the same!

[Countrywood]

Practice following their mouth at the walk, and then transition that feeling to the canter. Chances are you are not following at the walk and your trainer is not picking up on that.

[MysticOakRanch]

If your horse can be used for lunge lessons, try doing it on the lunge line - and if possible, with your eyes closed (that doesn’t work for some people, but if you CAN ride with eyes closed, you can feel the movement better). The horse’s canter gait actually naturally moves your hips and shoulders IF you can let go, which is why the lunge line can help.

The canter is tricky in some ways, so don’t feel like you are the only one!

[Countrywood]

try closing your eyes for brief (or longer periods deepending on horse) while you ride at all gaits, help develops feel and can concentrate on what you feel in your arms/hands/fingers.

[Windermere]

Not following the horse comes from stiffness somewhere in the body. When I am stiff somewhere, my trainer always gets me to MOVE! Sometimes it looks ridiculous. Like rolling my shoulders in circles as I’m riding, or shaking out my arms and letting them flop as I ride - anything to get them loose and get the tension out. Sometimes you need to ride sloppy before you can ride quiet. At the beginning of my ride while my horse is walking on a long rein, I always am moving my body around as much as possible, to loosen up the places where I tend to be stiff - my shoulders and my hips.

[SillyHorse]

Your elbows should move with your hips. Keep your arms close to your sides, your elbows close to your hips, and as your hips move, follow their motion with your arms.

[Color_of_Light]

Following involves seat, elbows, shoulders, and back. To follow at walk and canter, the rider’s spine and back must remain supple and free, as do all the other parts. Natural following of the movement, not overthinking. This sounds weird, consider trying this:

Wheel Barrow Method:
Hold the straight handles of a one wheeled wheel barrow. Stand up, take one step forward with one foot forward, knees slight bent not locked. (can be slightly on ball of back foot if this helps). Now, rock/push that wheel barrow few inches forward, few inches back (rocking forward motion), pretending you are on a walking horse, hands following at the walk. That give/take, forward/back feeling is a bit like riding a horse at the walk. (Timing of walk is a one-two, one-two movement.)

Canter: Walk and canter both require following the movement in the same way. Canter just has more/bigger movement following the horse. For the canter feeling, push/scoop in bigger canter-like strides, thinking of your seat following and your back staying supple. That give/take, forward/back, bigger movement, scooping feeling is a bit like following at the canter. (Timing of canter is a one-two-three, one-two-three, one-two-three movement.)

[ThreeFigs]

I like Windermere’s ideas. I have a hunch you’re in a defensive mode (even unconsciously) from riding the horse with the runaway canter for so long. I’ve been there, too.

Try consciously “rowing a boat” with your arms in the canter – and doing all the warm-ups that Windermere suggests. For a while, don’t worry about steady contact – just overexaggerate the following motion of your arms.

If the stiffness is coming from your seat (ie, an inability to follow the cantering motion from your pelvis), try stretching/loosening your lower back and hip joints. One German clinician I audited once made fun of Americans and their “fear” of pelvic motion. It’s kinda sexual and we’re culturally inhibited – that was his opinion!

He’d mimic the “American” walk, then he’d do a very slinky “catwalk”. It was hilarious!.

I try to help my students when/if they’re having trouble following a horse’s motion to think of a Samba, a Cha-Cha or a Tango. Dirty Dancing with your horse!

[csaper58]

Can anyone share a link, or several, to video of a rider correctly ‘following’ the canter? TIA!

[netg]

[QUOTE=csaper58;8579695]
Can anyone share a link, or several, to video of a rider correctly ‘following’ the canter? TIA![/QUOTE]

I literally can’t (can’t get to youtube) but I suspect an extended canter with Charlotte Dujardin or Carl Hester would.

[sascha]

[QUOTE=SUNKIST090888;8579288]
The issue I have cantering her is that even though she has a bigger stride than the other horse, I have a hard time feeling the movement in her head to follow. It seems like we’re just kind of “in place” and there’s nothing there to follow?

I do have a very consistent contact with both horses when riding, but one is a heavier contact, and the other is an “almost not there” contact. I’ve done many lunge lessons with no reins working just on my seat, and I can SIT the canter, but as soon as my hands become involved I can’t figure out how to move them! My trainer is very helpful at giving suggestions and letting me know when I am following/when I’m not, but I just can’t seem to grasp knowing the difference myself as everything feels the same![/QUOTE]

I’m not sure why your coach wants you to “follow” with your arms. Following with your seat, absolutely. Take a look at a horse cantering in side reins. The side reins do not follow. They don’t need to follow when the horse is moving well and is on the bit. Take a look at really good riders in canter - you may see some half halts for rebalancing but you’re not going to see this mythical “following” thing.

My guess is that your torso is stiff and you’ve been told to keep your hands quiet and sit as still as possible. Your legs, torso, and arms are probably not quite fully connected which will translate as a rigid rider with stiff hands.

To me, when someone says the hands are not “following” it means that the rider hasn’t yet developed feel and the ability to really have a conversation with a horse through the hands and seat.

I would give you a very simple and quite possibly excruciatingly difficult exercise at all three gaits. The exercise is 20m circle keep the size of the circle the same, keep the shape of the circle the same, but over 4-6 strides gradually counter-bend the horse. Then, over 8-12 strides change that bend to an inside bend without losing rhythm, suppleness, or changing the shape of the circle. Practice that (and don’t be afraid to experiment with how much and when to change the legs and seat for the change of bend as well as the hands) and you’ll start to develop feel and the ability to have a little conversation with your horse. That is going to translate into what your coach thinks is a “following” hand.

The simple exercise above will be equally difficult for you on both horses. The heavier contact horse will likely be less open to having a conversation at first and will try to avoid you asking for a change of bend and balance by getting heavier. The light contact horse may try to rush the exercise in an effort to do as you ask without having to come forward to the contact and really listen to what you are asking as you are asking. That horse will likely guess the end result and pop to the new bend instead of getting there over several strides very slowly and purposefully. The slowly goes for the change of bend, not the gait!

Good luck!

[netg]

[QUOTE=sascha;8579771]
I’m not sure why your coach wants you to “follow” with your arms. Following with your seat, absolutely. Take a look at a horse cantering in side reins. The side reins do not follow. They don’t need to follow when the horse is moving well and is on the bit. Take a look at really good riders in canter - you may see some half halts for rebalancing but you’re not going to see this mythical “following” thing. [/QUOTE]

Absolutely, completely, 100% disagree.

Horses have a natural bascule in canter, which is why it’s often problematic to longe in side reins at the canter. You will see the reins loosen and tighten if they are cantering in them if it is not a collected canter. The bascule lessens and you see less giving in the hands of riders in a good collected canter, yes, but will still see it in extended canters.

[sascha]

[QUOTE=netg;8579840]
Absolutely, completely, 100% disagree.

Horses have a natural bascule in canter, which is why it’s often problematic to longe in side reins at the canter. You will see the reins loosen and tighten if they are cantering in them if it is not a collected canter. The bascule lessens and you see less giving in the hands of riders in a good collected canter, yes, but will still see it in extended canters.[/QUOTE]

Of course, in extended canter (to a greater or lesser degree depending on horse, depending on how well the rider sits, depending on how balanced the horse is when allowed to lengthen its neck, etc.), in gallop, in horses on their forehands, absolutely. In what this rider is trying to accomplish at presumably working or collected gaits? Nope. And if you are fiddling around with your hands trying to “follow” you’re bugging the horse. Stop it.

Go watch some videos of really top class riders at collected and medium canter. You’re just not going to see this notion of of a hand following from the elbow. Besides which, a hand can’t follow from the elbow alone. The shoulder must be involved whether the rider feels that or not. The opening and closing of the elbow joints are more apparent to us when we’ve got our stirrups jacked and we’re galloping, but the back and forth motion in order to follow that increased motion of the horse’s neck comes from our shoulders.

[Countrywood]

I wonder if what we think of as “following” is the rider making small adjustments to keep the contact constant and steady (I have a hard time with that, with reins getting longer and shorter in intervals)

[MysticOakRanch]

[QUOTE=netg;8579840]
Absolutely, completely, 100% disagree.

.[/QUOTE]

I agree with your disagree netg! We follow with our hips and our arms OP!

OP - if you watch video of top riders, you will see the arm follows - the lower arm comes forward and back with the motion. Netg suggests watching the extended canter because it is more obvious -the shorter the stride, the less you will see (and at the upper levels, with collected canter, the stride is shorter and rounder).

Jane Savoie tries to put it into plain English. In the walk and canter, the horse uses his head and neck in a forward and back motion, and your elastic elbows should open and close forward and back as well.

If you go through any of the USDF judging forums, they talk about riders following the oscillation of the head and neck - they are talking about that forward and back.

[merrygoround]

[QUOTE=netg;8579840]
Absolutely, completely, 100% disagree.

Horses have a natural bascule in canter, which is why it’s often problematic to longe in side reins at the canter. You will see the reins loosen and tighten if they are cantering in them if it is not a collected canter. The bascule lessens and you see less giving in the hands of riders in a good collected canter, yes, but will still see it in extended canters.[/QUOTE]

I agree with you Netg.

The arms must follow. There is less follow at the collected walk and canter. Rowing a boat is a difficult analogy as in that movement the hands tend to drop when the elbows come back.but the degree of elbow motion is similar to that of a rider on an uncollected horse being ridden on contact.

And yes, the seat must follow, that is helped by the rider relaxing their lower back, sitting up and lifting their chest.

[Hawks_Nest]

As others have said, following with the arms is not an independent motion (and is something I’ve struggled with on my boy who has very extravagant gaits that we’ve been trying to rein in). Your arms should be moving in time with your hips, often if you are tight in your shoulder, that motion will be restricted. If your pelvis is locked and not following the swing of the canter, than it is very very difficult to follow with your arms as well.

For me, I find that it really helps to find the source of the tightness, be it the forearm, shoulder, or pelvis, and focus on that. Just thinking ‘following’ can be very difficult if you don’t know what to change to achieve that.

Also, if the driving reins helped but you can’t feel the difference, play around with how the two ways of holding the reins change what muscles you are using. Driving reins really make sure you are engaging your ring finger and keeping your wrists straight which helps to soften your forearms. So make sure when you hold your reins normally that you have a closed fist and are holding the rein with your ring finger to keep that soft wrist and forearm. Then take that feel to the canter.

[BigMama1]

Can someone explain more clearly or link to a photo of how to hold “driving reins” correctly? This sounds like something I should try

[SillyHorse]

OP - if you watch video of top riders, you will see the arm follows - the lower arm comes forward and back with the motion.

I don’t know who you’re watching, but watching videos of Charlotte Dujardin and Carl Hester just now, their elbows rarely move away from the hips at the canter.

[Countrywood]

Charlotte and Karl ( and virtually all the pros) ride with shorer reins than most of us ammies do,esp at lower levels. Plus their horses are so highly trained and advanced in their gaits the horses have far less movement in head and neck (except in the extended canter)

I think with shorter reins and esp the way Charlotte and Karl hold their hands so far in front, with elbows at side, that they actually have to move thier hands very little to stay in contanct with the mouth (aka “follow”)…look how short a distance the reins are from bit to hand compared to the way many of us ride