My horses canter is exhausting.

[Belmont]

I am at a loss on how to lighten him up. He is so heavy and it makes it hard to make any adjustments between fences. We are working on our extensions and collection, but I feel sometimes it just makes matters worse.

I know I don’t canter enough, and I need to do this more. I’ve tried totally dropping the reins, long reins, short reins, middle reins, different bits, half seat, sitting…

How can I get him lighter? I watch videos of people collecting their horses and doing beautiful, gentle canter work. I know some people make it look easy, but my BO watches me and says “I don’t know how you do it” so I’m guessing it looks tough.

Do I just grit through it and do a lot of cantering? Is there something else I can do to help him along.

Bumping him to get him up does a lot of worse than good.

I guess my fear is that I’m going to make him hard mouthed by trying to just hold onto him so much, and I like to pride myself on being “soft handed” and supple wtih our flatwork (his trot work is a dream).

[supershorty628]

What bit is he in?

Have you done a lot of transitions? Try doing a transition every 10 steps. Then shorten it to 5. Make a lot of patterns - every time he gets heavy or stiff, turn (if you can). Hard to bear down on the bit when you don’t know where you’re going or what gait you’ll be in.

[Belmont]

I just switched him back to a french link snaffle, because he was getting to backed up in a curb. Total dream boat in the snaffle at a trot.

I will start with transitions! I used to half heartedly do them mainly going canter to stop because our halt used to be terrible, but once that improved I never thought about going back!

[supershorty628]

Nikki gets heavy at the canter sometimes. What I’ve found works best is to bring her back to a collected sitting trot on a 10m circle or figure 8 every time she starts to get heavy at the canter. When I’m satisfied with how she feels, we go back to the canter. I find canter-trot/trot-canter transitions to be really useful.

I also like to randomly turn just to keep her paying attention, but that can be tricky if you’re riding in a ring with other people. Also, make sure you’re keeping your hands high enough. I know I have a tendency to have hunter hands and Nikki will lie all over the bit if I drop my hands too low!

[netg]

Find a light dressage rider - one for whom everything is soft and kind looking - and pay for a few rides, then a few lessons.

It shouldn’t be so hard, and continuing to practice heavy will just reinforce the heavy. It’s probably a balance problem, and this is probably a horse who needs a seat which is more driving to get the hind end under (as opposed to unkind hammering driving) but you have to learn and so does the horse.

Transitions are an excellent idea - I like the “pretend you’re going to trot then keep cantering” type of non-transition as well. Of course you can’t reprimand the horse if it actually does the downward either.

[PaintedHunter]

Ditto dressage. My draft cross used to be SO INCREDIBLY heavy at the canter - and his conformation of his head and neck surely didn’t help things. After we switched to eventing a few months ago and started taking dressage lessons, his canter has improved so much. He’s much lighter and adjustable, although we still have work to do. All of the 20-meter circle work at the canter, including transitions, has really, really helped. And I found that the more I sat for the canter, rather than half-seating, the better his canter became. YMMV.

[Eventer13]

Transitions are great. You have to make sure you can really get your horse in front of the leg in order for the half halt to cause collection rather just shortening and falling on the forehand. Canter-walk-canter are my favorites. RAPID transitions are best (like walk every 1/4 to half 20-meter circle). If the horse starts to anticipate, that’s OK, because he will naturally start stepping under for the downward rather than falling on his face.

Shoulder-fore in canter can do wonders. Just start it slowly–a few steps at a time–because it is hard work. Counter-canter can also help lighten him up. Make sure for both of these that you stay light on your inside rein so you don’t give him an option to hang.

Gallop sets can be useful to build up endurance. Sometimes when they are a bit fitter, they are more willing to carry themselves (and stay more forward). I would bridge the reins so pulling doesn’t drag you forward.

I also like galloping, then asking the horse to come back to a halt, then walk and straight into gallop. Again, its transitions, but sometimes the “bigger” transitions get them sharper to your aids and help achieve self-carriage.

[moonriverfarm]

A Myler snaffle, level 2 worked wonders for some of mine.

[FineAlready]

[QUOTE=PaintedHunter;7291749]
Ditto dressage. My draft cross used to be SO INCREDIBLY heavy at the canter - and his conformation of his head and neck surely didn’t help things. After we switched to eventing a few months ago and started taking dressage lessons, his canter has improved so much. He’s much lighter and adjustable, although we still have work to do. All of the 20-meter circle work at the canter, including transitions, has really, really helped. And I found that the more I sat for the canter, rather than half-seating, the better his canter became. YMMV.[/QUOTE]

Yup, it sounds like the OP and her horse could benefit from some work with a good dressage instructor. And I agree, sitting the canter and the 20 meter circle work does improve the canter and make it lighter.

[RugBug]

Lightening a horse is about leg, not hand. Don’t bump up, put your leg on.

Do lots of transitions…but be careful to stop as he gets tired. Start with the trot. Trot for 5 strides. Walk five steps. Trot 5 strides. As he gets able to do that, decrease the number of steps at both the trot and walk.

then do the same exercise at the canter. Canter 10 strides, trot or walk (I prefer walk) 10. Etc. Do this until you can get a nice upward transition that is light…a soft upward transition will also come with one or two or whatever he is capable of…light strides. When he gets heavy again, do a downward transition, balance the trot and then back up the canter. As horse gets stronger, you will be able to build on those light canter strides because he will be strong enough to maintain it.

Be sure to stop before horse gets tired. Don’t go for perfection at first: Go for better.

Improvement will come in increments.

[Chezzie]

Add leg, leg, and then some more LEG!

And the only way for the canter to get better is to do it. The less they canter, the harder it is to do in a balanced, organized way. When it’s hard and they aren’t used to doing it, they resist & lean & moan & groan.

(I say that as the owner of the Worlds Heaviest Canterer - Reformed.)

[loshad]

Ditto the transitions. I like a stair step exercise - 10 strides in slower gait, 10 in faster, 9 in slower gait, 9 in faster, and so on. I generally didn’t go lower than 5 with canter and trot, but know people who can get to 1.

[stytal]

I’m with supershorty. I have one that has a back cracking canter and the best thing for her (since I don’t like to canter sitting if I don’t have to) is the keep her constantly guessing where she is going. She definitely gets lighter and I don’t feel like I’m hanging all over her. Even doing the serpentines and circles help at the trot to keep her thinking lighter.

[PossumHorse]

Per my dressage instructor - don’t try to fix the canter, return to the trot as soon as the canter goes bad. You will be doing 3 strides canter, back to trot, get it good and then transition back to canter. Expect to only achieve 3 strides canter for the first few days.

[KateKat]

ditto the leg comments. You need to make sure that your horse is in front of your leg and really engaging that hind end in order to be lighter up front. Transitions, circles, lateral work, etc will all help. I also like doing a serpentines around all the jumps set up in the arena-keeps the horse guessing, and you are constantly changing the bend which helps to supple and get them stepping under themselves.

[ThistleDewDressage]

Another good exercise is to do 4 transitions on a 20 meter circle. So trot 1/4 canter 1/4 trot 1/4. Don’t worry about pretty be precise, its really hard to ride at first because it is prep of the transition every step, but the horse strengthens noticeably in a week or two. Once the horse is keen and listening you can do transitions within the gait. Make sure that you don’t pull the horse down as that puts them on the forehand. Good luck.

[alto]

@netg;7291730

Find a light dressage rider - one for whom everything is soft and kind looking - and pay for a few rides, then a few lessons.

This ^ … but substitute jump rider or dressage rider :winkgrin:

[melody1]

You don’t need more leg, you need your horse to respond to less leg. I hate seeing “more leg!” preached again and again. Do we think our horses won’t become dead to our legs with overuse the same way we all know our horses will become dead to the hands with overuse?

[candysgirl]

I’d do a whole lot of canter-walk-canter transitions only expecting a few decent canter strides at a time.

My Arab, who when fit, is really light in the bridle (think what you want and it happens). When not fit, he’s luggy and all over the place. He’s not doing it on purpose or to be bratty, he really just cannot do what he’s being asked to do when he’s out of shape. I also do a fair amount of letting him canter kind of on the forehand in the beginning (I do this on a loose rein so there’s no pulling match) while we build strength back up. Over time, he starts to rock back and things get better again.

[fordtraktor]

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Another good exercise is the canter rollback…canter down the long side, halt, turn on the haunches to the outside and canter depart the other way. Repeat. Use your jumping canter, not a shuffling canter. If you couldn’t turn to a 5’ jump immediately out of your canter, you aren’t practicing a useful canter. The canter needs to be forward. The halts and rollbacks will make it light if they are crisp.