i would like some ideas from hunt seat and dressage trainers on how to get my large horse to move smoothly into the canter instead of explodeing forward or simply speeding up to a fast trot... :D
any proven advice is very needed! Thanks
Answers:
Well without seeing you and your horse it is hard to give you information and help that would address your specific difficulties. It sounds like you could be seesawing betweeen having your horse overly sensitive to your leg and perhaps overcollected prior to the canter depart (thus the explosive depart) with being alittle too passive in your seat and leg while giving him away with your hands thus his just speeding up his trot. You need to find the happy medium. Are you sitting the trot prior to asking for the canter depart? Continuing to post reinforses the trot and will encourage him to speed up his trot rather than break into the canter. I would encourage you to do many transitions walk to halt, halt to walk, walk to trot, trot to halt halt to trot as well as transitions within the trot increasing and decreasing his speed. The goal of these transitions is to train your horse to give you a smooth yet immediate response to your aids. The more trainsitons the better. When you have them down at the simpler gaits you can then proceed to the canter. Here the easiest transition is sitting trot to canter. Walk to canter and halt to canter are more difficult. numerous transitions will help you achieve your goal. Set your horse up for the canter by picking a spot in the ring that you plan to start the canter at and then proceed to prepare for the lead by asking for the correct bend applying the correct seat and leg aids and then letting the horse move forward by giving at the appropriate time with your inside rein while keeping light contact with you outside rein. Try to get the canter with the lightest amount of leg and seat possible making sure you are not releasing your hand too much to soon. If he just trots faster bring him back to a slower gait, get him and yourself reorganized and back on the bit trotting nicely and ask again increasing your leg aid until you find the minimum amount of leg he requires to take the canter. It is really similar to loading up a spring the larger the amount of compression the bigger the spring will spring. The compression is achieved on the horse by a combination of seat, leg and hand. Again with out seeing you ride it is hard to be more specific.
reply to additional info. So there are no problems going from trot to canter? well then there are 2 possible reasons for the problem. #1 being she is over-anticipating being asked for the canter so mix it up with the trot and halt so she is not sure what is coming next as well as directional changes. Don't ask for too many of these departs in a schooling. Make it a short part of your ride and mix it up. The 2nd reason may be a lack of strength behind to engage properly and maintain being balanced. Build up his/her base with canter work on a 20 meter circle spiraling the circle in and then back out in both directions as well as transitions will strengthen your horse as well as some counter-canter work. Just simple 1/2 turns and holding the counterlead back to the long side of the arena to start with eventual countercanter on the short side of the arena as well in both directions.
Just sit down and hold him with your reins, but not too much, my horse sometimes has the same problem. You might check him a few times with your reins when asking for the transition. Then maybe stop him if or when he doesn't go into it quietly and collected and back him up, then try again.
Don't send the horse "mixed signals"... don't tell him to go but still pulling back on the reins... thats probably why he just goes into a fast trot... but i'm sure that if you practice more... and correctly, your horse is sure to get better at the transition into cantering
Do you do any long line work? This is a good way to strengthen up your horse so he can carry his leg well under him for the smooth canter depart. Work on cantering him in spirals both ways, faster, then slower. Do a lot of transitioning between the trot/canter/trot/halt. If you don't know how to longe, try to find someone in your area who could give you lessons in this...I would even just go for some lessons anyway as the instructor can help you figure out what is making your horse charge forward like he is, and how to help you best correct him. It's hard to diagnose this without seeing what you are doing! Mainly, though, a big horse like this is scooting because he's not in as fit a condition as he needs to be to do a smooth transition, which is a power move.
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