I have a Morgan horse with a decidedly-undressage-friendly conformation. We event at the lower levels, so her conformation is not a major issue. However, recently a top trainer and a judge have commented on her sometimes 4-beat canter. it is worse to the left (her weaker side on the hind) than the right. I understand this is not uncommon for Morgan horses. However, does anyone have any exercises that might help re-establish a 3-beat canter? Interestingly, I asked one or two people about why it is becoming more apparent now than it has been in the past, and they all thought it was because we were now asking and expecting more from her. Maybe sheās in a āmiddleā phase and it will get better as she gets stronger? If it matters, her lateral work has begun to improve significantly. Thanks!
Ride forward.
I have seen a number of backyard trainers get a 4 beat canter out of perfectly fine horses, even good quality WB, because they try to collect by just going slower and slower with the horse on the forehand. If by āasking moreā you mean that you are trying to collect and using more rein, then you need to lighten up and get the horse to have impulsion and go before you start trying to alter the cantr.
Go forward. Usually 4-beat canter is caused by trying to collect the canter before the horse is strong enough to do so, and the horse drops on the forehand to compensate.
Put your leg on, go forward, ride from behind to get the ājumpā or amplitude back in the canter. Work on transitions from working to medium canter, as well as trot/canter transitions, to build strength.
Thisā¦ my instructor said to go out to the field/trail and gallop. I have also cantered cavaletti in the indoor when the footing in too wet outdoors. I am a former event rider but have no interest in actual jumping. My horse loves three one stride cavalletti down the center line in the rather large indoor. She has developed much more push off her hind end and more joy in her work. Even cantering a single rail helps for us.
I love my Morgans, but when theyāre four-beating in the canter it isnāt usually for lack of impulsion. As a breed theyāre quite naturally forward. Check for soundness, stifle or hock, and kissing spine.
Tension and/or stiffness also lend to a four-beat, which can be why going forward helps open up the strideā¦ but generally speaking if four-beat is the natural way of going versus, say, during a movement requiring collection, youāre looking at a soundness issue.
If itās new, make sure the SI and stifles arenāt hurting.
If itās not physical, it could be a lack of strength if you are asking for more collection than he can manage without compromising the quality of the gait. It could also be a lack of understanding of the collection, Reducing speed/energy instead of transferring weight.
Try establishing a forward working canter and only collecting for 2-3 strides before going again. Use exercises to create collection, like a 1/2 volte or a few strides of haunches in so you can keep riding/thinking forward.
Light lateral work (shoulder-fore, shoulder-in, or haunches-in, all of which can be done either on a circle or down the long side) can help reunite the canter. Itās hard work, though, so make sure that you give plenty of walk breaks.
This is really interesting! She used to have SI and back soreness (from poor saddle fit) issues, but I thought weād resolved that. She is quite often tense and stiff when we do dressage, sheās much more relaxed and forward when jumping. Her canter was actually more āpureā when she had the back and SI discomfort, so I think the lack of understanding and strength are the contributors now that Iām asking for (a little) more collection. Cavelletti and transitions within the gait (and trot canter) sound like good exercises to try. Thanks!
OP, what needs to happen, biomechanically speaking, is leap up and out a bit more each stride when sheās got both hind feet on the ground, and to have her get quicker to draw her hind legs up and under her belly during that last phase of the stride when her front two feet are on the ground.
That means, then, that you need to āride her forwardā to be sure, but also some other things:
Gallop a little bit until you can feel that gaitās quickness with the hind legs.
If you canāt feel it, put her on a lunge line and ask her for a canter transition however she does it, give her a quarter of a circle and then ask her to speed up and gallop just a tad. Watch her hind legs and see how much quicker she is to draw then up when sheās go a bit of impulsion vs. when sheās just slowly getting into gear.
IMO, the quickness with the hind legs is where you need to start. Thatās why everyone would have you ride forward.
Equally important, but next: Worry less about the feel in your hand and the shape of her neck than the uphill balance you should feel. That bit of it, combined with an active hind leg, will create the āleapā that you need. IMO, lots of dressage horses slowly and quietly get behind your leg and have less-than-energetic canters because riders place more emphasis on the horseās relationship with the hand and consistency with the contact than on the horse being ahead of the leg. So the horse learns to give you a āclose enough for government workā kind of canter, if you will hold his head AND not really be intent about just how ahead of your leg he is. So reverse those priorities and your attention to the front end or the back end!
When I have a horse whose canter Iād like to āspruce upā the way you would with a 4-beat canter, I might get in a little two-point and hand-gallop some, praising the horse and getting both of us comfortable there. Then, I sit and, gradually half-halt to produce a bit of collection and more of a ācanterā from there. I like to get collection and that leap or uphill balance by doing something that causes the horse to choose that posture, rather than by me using hand and leg to manufacture it.
If I were in a pretty big canter on a 20m or larger circle and I did a smaller, 10-15m circle, the horse would have to rock back a bit for that sharper turn. Note that I wouldnāt particularly ask the horse to slow down. Rather, Iād bring my shoulders/upper body back, a little taller, Iād half-halt every other stride or so to help, but wouldnāt pick the speed. Iād pick the path and Iād give a nice, soft ride when the horse picked himself up just in the process of staying on the path.
I like the counter canter, so Iād do a shallow serpentine and feel for the horse rocking back, but keeping the āreach underā behind that would come during the counter canter phase. When I got to the far corner of the long side, Iād dry to keep that feel I had. Maybe Iād do that 10-15m circle on the short side if I had my horse in that nice, uphill posture.
I hope this helps. Just start with your focus being on the quickness of the hind leg and the uphill posture and you will ride so as to make progress. When your horse can maintain those things at a canter that is a bit too fast, heāll still be stronger in his hind quarters and core than he his now. And when heās stronger in those parts of his body, then you can create the shape of the neck that you want. And it wonāt be hard. But heās got to get stronger first in a way that just cantering around in that 4-beat canter wonāt help.
At your level, there is no collection. Your horse should
be in a working canter position.
A working canter has to be quite active with a more open frame and the lower neck set. This will help you regain the 3beat.
Morgans tend to have a higher natural head carriage and some hollowing in the back, so youāll have to counter that effect by lowering her neck (not putting her on the forehand) a little bit more to begin with, and make sure that you have her rounder through her back.
Think about the stretchy circle in trot.
Do that in canter.
Wow, MVP, huge help, if I can do it! So interesting about the āquicknessā! That is exactly what we were working on in our lateral work. She is very lazy behind and really needs to build that quick twitch muscle. In jumping, I do exactly what you suggest (2-point and gallop a few strides then sit up and bring her back in) to get her āboingyā; I never thought to do it for dressage.
You sure can do that in dressage! In fact, if you and she already have that worked out, you are way ahead of the game. I think Dressagists do do a version of this. But they stay sitting (and can follow really well with their seat). It happens later in a horseās training and so you might not see that hand doing anything. But itās the same idea and feel as what you already have.
When you do this ride for dressage, practice sitting up with your body, keeping your arm relaxed and think about following with your seat. I donāt have good words for this, sorry! But what I mean is that you bring the āboingā or the elevation back with any aid but your hand. Maybe leave her head out there and bring her back by bringing your seat onto her back and your body to the vertical. I always think about imitating a German Officer from 1900, and Iām short and girly, LOL.
Ride that for a couple of strides. If sheās not back and leaping the way youād like, then add a well-timed half-halt (really, just donāt follow her head down when she lowers it in stride) and see if that doesnāt bring her back. Then see how much of that springy, uphill canter you can ride with your body and just some well-timed half halts, and for how many strides.
This will be hard for her. It takes her lots of isometric strength to give you a smooth, springy canter that you find easy to ride. Sheāll either get soft and springyā¦ and then drop into the trot, or she might get hollow and worried. Both are what she can think to do when sheās running out of core strength. Keep feeling for that and nurse her through it, ideally by letting her stretch back out into that bigger canter. At least she learns to keep the hind end engaged even if sheās too muscle-fatigued in her core to keep the nicer canter. So Iād hold her in that springy canter with my seat and body for a few strides, maybe one of those 10-15m circles and then, before she drops behind your leg (falling out of the canter or getting hollow), get up off her back and allow her to take a slightly longer canter again.
You donāt need many sets of this in one day. And if you combine that with lots of trot-canter-trot transitions, you will build the strength in her hind end and core pretty fast. Those trot-canter transitions should feel like sheās got so much impulsion and power at the trot that sheās ātaking youā and begging to canter. When you have this feeling, you have a hind leg thatās active enough to step out briskly into a good, engaged canter.
You sure can do that in dressage! In fact, if you and she already have that worked out, you are way ahead of the game. I think Dressagists do do a version of this. But they stay sitting (and can follow really well with their seat). It happens later in a horseās training and so you might not see that hand doing anything. But itās the same idea and feel as what you already have.
When you do this ride for dressage, practice sitting up with your body, keeping your arm relaxed and think about following with your seat. I donāt have good words for this, sorry! But what I mean is that you bring the āboingā or the elevation back with any aid but your hand. Maybe leave her head out there and bring her back by bringing your seat onto her back and your body to the vertical. I always think about imitating a German Officer from 1900, and Iām short and girly, LOL.
Ride that for a couple of strides. If sheās not back and leaping the way youād like, then add a well-timed half-halt (really, just donāt follow her head down when she lowers it in stride) and see if that doesnāt bring her back. Then see how much of that springy, uphill canter you can ride with your body and just some well-timed half halts, and for how many strides.
This will be hard for her. It takes her lots of isometric strength to give you a smooth, springy canter that you find easy to ride. Sheāll either get soft and springyā¦ and then drop into the trot, or she might get hollow and worried. Both are what she can think to do when sheās running out of core strength. Keep feeling for that and nurse her through it, ideally by letting her stretch back out into that bigger canter. At least she learns to keep the hind end engaged even if sheās too muscle-fatigued in her core to keep the nicer canter. So Iād hold her in that springy canter with my seat and body for a few strides, maybe one of those 10-15m circles and then, before she drops behind your leg (falling out of the canter or getting hollow), get up off her back and allow her to take a slightly longer canter again.
You donāt need many sets of this in one day. And if you combine that with lots of trot-canter-trot transitions, you will build the strength in her hind end and core pretty fast. Those trot-canter transitions should feel like sheās got so much impulsion and power at the trot that sheās ātaking youā and begging to canter. When you have this feeling, you have a hind leg thatās active enough to step out briskly into a good, engaged canter. If you can pick up the canter when you can feel that pushing power, you wonāt have to āfix itā once you are there. Rather, you can just ride the impulsion you have. This is the opposite of what we like to do when coming down to the trot from the canter. Most horses trot just about as well as they possibly can (on that day) after they canter because they have that hind-end really in gear. Go ahead and use all that natural impulsion you made just by cantering to get a really good trot and cruise around in that for awhile so she can do some strengthening that was mentally easy for her.
For many horses the ideal, and fuss free way to get āforwardā is transition, between trot and canter. Just be sure your body is not damping down the forward you have after the downward.
Iāve suggested this before - it really does work. Leg Yield at the canter. Realize the horse canāt cross itās hind legs in the canter, so it isnāt a āfullā leg yield. But for a less fit, less trained horse, pick up canter on the short side, and ride the quarter line. Ask for 3 or 4 steps of leg yield over, then circle away - depending on the horseās fitness, you may want to transition to a trot break before doing it again. This really does bring the horseās front end up and forces them into a loftier canter, but it is hard work.
Iāve had 2 Morgans, and one Morgan Friesian cross and all 3 had excellent canters, seriously. I must have been lucky! But I have used LY at the canter on several horses over the years, learned it from a very good biomechanics trainer (who has trained in Germany and is USDF faculty), and it is really useful.
Just realize it is hard work, give the horse plenty of breaks, and gradually increase the amount of āafter leg yieldā canter but donāt let it deteriorate to 4 beat, transition to trot (or more LY, depending on fitness) before that happens.
Agree with others, the horse must be forward as well - but if the horse is TOO forward, it loses balance, which doesnāt help the cause eitherā¦
