Horse won’t canter with a rider, fine on the lunge

[eightpondfarm]

If it were me, and this was my horse, i wouldn’t even try to make her canter. I have a whole bunch of horses ‘with issues’, and every one of them gets to set the timeline.
It’s a two-pronged approach : Their physicality and their mental stability.

How i want every horse i own to be is happy and healthy. And when i ride, i ride the horse’s body and the horse’s mind.
Trust is the base from which everything else builds. And with some of them, it takes a long time.

The foundation MUST be solid in order to build upon.

[SusanO]

Will she canter outside of an arena? Sometimes their balance is not so good with a rider in a smaller enclosure and they just don’t want to be out of balance which can be traumatic for a horse, especially for a sensitive horse like an Arab. If this is the case just stay out of the arena in the canter and work on walk, trot until they are better balanced. Not saying this is the problem but something else to consider.

[cayuse]

I see she is a saddlebred/arab. Just out of curiosity was she ridden saddleseat before you purchased her? She could be used to someone sitting further back and or completely different cues during transitions. Just a wild guess on my part. Welcome to the forum!

[Manni01]

I do agree with this very much. Play around with the trot in all different ways possible. Do trot walk transitions, do trot -extended trot transitions. You can even practice Trot halt transitions. Engage your horse and make her pay attention to you….

And then if all of this works well you can use the trot - extended trot transitions to manouver her into canter. Most of the time they will canter if you push her a little too hard in the extended trot. Once she does it, praise her a lot and go from there…. Over the time you will find out how to get her into canter. Riding horses requires patience and sometimes being creative….
good luck!!

[LilRanger]

And if she was a driving horse, she may not realize she’s allowed to canter under saddle.

But ears and swishing and a buck says pain to me, horses have good memories, but if it’s been years since she’s been punished for cantering and she’s been offering it on the lunge in tack but not ridden, I’d look to a physical cause. Your trainer having successfully cantered her should have eased a lot of that worry by now.

I second having your trainer show you how to successfully ask for the canter.

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

This was exactly my thought. I’m not a saddleseat person (to put it mildly), but don’t Saddlebreds usually canter from a halt or a very collected walk, at least when shown? (So letting the mare trot to her heart’s content in the hope she feels like cantering eventually might not be terribly effective, if the horse’s training is in that discipline).

Those with more experience in this area, feel free to correct or chime in.

[candyappy]

@annikaswenson

My trainer says it’s not a pain issue but more so the expectation of pain due to her past. I’m not sure what I can do to change her mindset about cantering under saddle. Any ideas? TIA!!

Can your trainer get her to canter under saddle? I ask because I have very little faith in a trainer who cannot ride what they teach their students and her assumptions may be off.

ETA: I am not talking about trainers who can no longer ride due to age or physical limitations. They rode it previously but cannot now but can still teach it.

I don’t disagree with the thoughts that the mare is not wanting to canter because they anticipate pain and especially at your mare age it can be very ingrained and an automatic response to refuse if this is due to her previous owner.

I haven’t read any responses yet so forgive me if I am off base but I would have a vet thoroughly evaluate her for back pain and make sure your saddle fits correctly. Both those issues will keep a horse most definitely from going forward.

[luvmyhackney]

Generally they are started just like other horses, picking up canter from the trot and then building up to a walk/canter transition under saddle.

You start in long lines, teach commands, then move to under saddle.

[Warmblood1]

If you’re able to upload a video to YouTube and post a link, that may be really helpful. There are some posters here with a really good eye for lameness and saddle fit and it may save you a lot of grief (lameness exam, extensive vetting, getting a saddle fitter, etc) if we could have a look and point you in the right direction.

I will say that horses are usually not exceedingly difficult without reason so I’d be interested in seeing her move and seeing her saddle on her back.

[MapleBreeze]

Have you lunged her over a small jump?

I feel like the quality of the canter here needs improved on the lunge.

What is her canter like? Is it racing around or slow and collected? Can she strike off round with sidereins or does she blow up?

What kind of exercises have you done to lighten her forehand and make her shoulders more mobile so she can strike off properly under saddle?

Can she leg yield? Shoulder in?

[J-Lu]

My horse was a bit of a mental mess at 4 years old. I schooled him on the longe line and he’s smart enough that not I can get a circle around me and changes with voice commands without a halter or longe line.

Years ago, I used those verbal commands to help him associate my aids with the command. It worked very well.

If the horse can longe just fine at the canter without a rider but hesitates with a rider, I’d look at what YOU are doing and any problems with the HORSE’s back, including saddle fit with the weight of a rider.

Your trainer should be able to hop on and address this. If your trainer doesn’t want to, I’d suggest engaging another trainer.

[Paint_Party]

@J-Lu

If the horse can longe just fine at the canter without a rider but hesitates with a rider, I’d look at what YOU are doing

Agree. I kind of alluded to this but was trying to be nice. Also wonder: does she (OP) have cantering issues with any other horses in the barn? Can she hop on Dobbin the Lesson Horse and do easy canter departs?

@J-Lu

Your trainer should be able to hop on and address this. If your trainer doesn’t want to, I’d suggest engaging another trainer.

^^^ This. Unless the trainer is somehow physically unable to ride, I don’t understand why she (trainer) isn’t demonstrating how she achieved a canter on this horse.

[sweetsalute]

Chiming in just to say I’ve also got a young horse who will canter fine on the lunge (although this took a long time to get her confidence up), but we still have issues under saddle. 100% the problem is me, I’m a bit of a wimp and don’t have the confidence to push her through the messy unbalanced stuff, but there are some good suggestions here to try so thanks everyone!

[lazaret]

I had a horse who had a time in his life where he would buck his way into the canter as a way of sorting himself out. It lasted a couple months but the only way out of it was through, let him get his feet organized and canter a little more each day. Eventually he figured out he didn’t need to do that.

At 12, this horse has had an entire life before you. What was she trained to do before?

[Warmblood1]

Curious… why did it take 6 months for your trainer to get the horse to canter?

[SuzieQNutter]

You need to get out of the arena and find a steep hill. Go up it as fast as you can.

[J-Lu]

@SuzieQNutter

You need to get out of the arena and find a steep hill. Go up it as fast as you can.

Actually, going up steep hills as fast as you can is not a great idea for horses. That is too much. Ride milder hills at lower gaits to build muscle and connective tissue strength.

[annikaswenson]

I asked her if she would ride her, she said yes - but that there won’t be much better results than I’m getting

[annikaswenson]

I wish I could do that! A big goal with her is eventually being able to ride outside, but I don’t expect any success if I were to try it atm based on how she behaves on the lunge line outside

[annikaswenson]

I was told that it was because she needed a lot of consistency. For those months, she was worked 4 times a week (combo of lunging with no tack, lunging with side reins, and riding)