Teaching My Horse To Canter

[Donkaloosa]

In November, I bought a 10 year old Haflinger to use strictly as a trail horse. And he’s fabulous on trails. Before I got him, he was broke to drive so glad and double, and went on multiple two week elk hunting trips where he was ridden and used to pack. He canters on a lunge line, he canters in pasture, but not under saddle. I’m thinking that he may not have had much, if any, experience centering under saddle which is why he doesn’t seem to know what I’m asking. When the arena dries, I thought I’d lunge him with a saddle and try after that to get him to canter while I’m on him.

Honestly, since all we do is trail ride, being able to canter isn’t terribly important. Even on the steep, rocky hills he trots rather than canter. But it is fun to canter, and if my situation would change and I’d need to sell him, I’d want him to have a good canter rather than just trotting faster and faster.

[Bluey]

@Donkaloosa

In November, I bought a 10 year old Haflinger to use strictly as a trail horse. And he’s fabulous on trails. Before I got him, he was broke to drive so glad and double, and went on multiple two week elk hunting trips where he was ridden and used to pack. He canters on a lunge line, he canters in pasture, but not under saddle. I’m thinking that he may not have had much, if any, experience centering under saddle which is why he doesn’t seem to know what I’m asking. When the arena dries, I thought I’d lunge him with a saddle and try after that to get him to canter while I’m on him.

Honestly, since all we do is trail ride, being able to canter isn’t terribly important. Even on the steep, rocky hills he trots rather than canter. But it is fun to canter, and if my situation would change and I’d need to sell him, I’d want him to have a good canter rather than just trotting faster and faster.

Half halts are the basic to canter departs.
Teaches to balance., try many of them.
Don’t let him rush falling onto his front and one of those he will catch on.

He needs to learn to balance well at the trot first, not rush there, gain some fitness and then cantering should happen.

[MsM]

You might try really establishing the canter from a voice command on the lunge. You need to get to the point that you dont have to chase him into it, he responds to a word (or the kiss sound) and can canter fairly well balanced. Then you can try it under saddle. If he still seems confused you might need someone to lunge him with you on him with you gradually taking control as he gets the idea. Good luck!

[AnastasiaBeaverhousen]

Believe it or not , it is easier to teach the canter from a walk.

If you try to ask for the canter depart from the trot it’s hard to feel when to apply the canter aid

If you post when you ask for the canter depart you have to sit when you give the aids. So if your timing is off, and you give the aid when rising the horse will just tend to trot faster…

If you to tend to lean forward when you give the aid , the horse will trot faster because he’ s trying to keep you under his center of balance.

The usual canter aids are outside leg behind the girth, inside leg on the girth.

There are practical reasons for this, which you may or may not want to know.

Whatever aid you choose, just be consistent.

The main thing is that you sit up through the transition, dont hold your breath. And dont hold the aid.
If he trots , dont keep trying to canter through the trot. Bring him back down to the walk and then ask again.

I agree with the posters about giving some kind of voice command. It is frowned on in dressage because you are not allowed to use the voice as an aid in competition, but I used vocal cues when teaching my horse to canter.

Some use the kissing sound, but I found saying .
“Cann -ter!” worked better for me.

When your horse reliably and consistently canters when you use the vocal cue on the lunge , you can try it in the saddle.

Dont worry if he strikes off on the wrong lead at first.
You can fix that later.

The main thing is not to let him keep trotting . Bring him down to the walk and ask again.

Once he understands what you want , he’ll do it.

Good luck
hope this helps.

[sophie]

It’s not unusual for “draft-type” horses that have been trained to drive first to be reluctant to canter under saddle. It will come.
Teach him voice commands on the longe line, since he knows how to longe. Once he knows them it will be much easier to get the canter under saddle, be it for walk-canter or trot-canter departs.

My sister has had 2 mares that were drafty-types trained to drive and she first got them to canter under saddle in wide open fields with a bit of uphill, praising them as soon as they broke into canter (it wasn’t pretty at first, BIG driving trot and all lol). Eventually they both had very comfy, balanced canters.

[Ajierene]

Some horses are more willing than others. I remember riding a young paint that I had only gotten around to walk and trot on. We went on a trail with someone else and he took off in a canter and this poor paint just trotted as fast as he could to attempt to keep up, to no avail. Once we learned canter, he was fine. Another horse from that same time (the two were a year apart and at the same facility so I started one then started the other) took off in a canter just fine in the same situation. My mare figured it out right quick on her own.

With this horse, it sounds like he doesn’t have any balance issues if he’s cantering fine on a lunge line so I wouldn’t worry about that. It sounds more like he was told it he wasn’t supposed to.

Sophie’s option is a good one - that’s something I have used with young/green horses before to help them understand the physical aids.

All the “this is the correct aid” information in the world won’t work if your horse doesn’t know the aids so use what works for you and the horse. He may have been told so many times to not canter in tack (saddle and/or harness) before you got him that he doesn’t think it is appropriate so it may be good to put him on the lunge line and ask him to canter with a saddle on and praise, then put a rider on and same thing with praise. Once he understands it is OK, he should be fine.

[anon68314200]

Small jumps/gymnastics are the easy way to go.

[Donkaloosa]

Thanks for all the great advice!

He was not balanced at all when I got him — he hadn’t been ridden for a few months and was out of shape. I have been working on that, getting him in shape, lots of half halts. His trot has improved tremendously.

As soon as the arena is dry, I’ll lunge him under saddle, working on voice commands, getting him to understand that cantering is ok.

”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹And I do have a friend who can lunge me on him, if necessary.

I have to remember that I have time, and this big of training isn’t going to happen overnight. He’s such a good boy, I’m sure he’ll learn this.