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Posted by mandy on August 22, 2004 at 19:54:30:
In Reply to: Re: My horse will not canter!! posted by Nanci on July 31, 2004 at 16:21:57:
: : I just bought a horse and she is good with the walk and the trot, but when I ask for the Canter she just trots faster and faster. Some times I can get her into the canter after a lot of kicking and fast troting. I have been riding fo six years and I have never had this problem with my horses. I just don't know what to do!!
: You might want to put this mare back into the round pen and teach her the voice cues for the different gaits. She may be lazy, she may just have never been taught to switch. Basically you are going to have to retrain her and that takes time. Good luck.
: Do you know your mare's history? The pony I've been training had the same problem all summer. The reason was that he had been a driving pony prior to our owning him. She sounds like a driving horse to me, and if this is the case, when you ask her to go faster, she thinks you want a faster trot. She'll trot faster and faster. If you keep pushing her at her fastest trot, she'll move into a canter, but she thinks this is wrong. You should probably retrain her like the person before me said, but also, if you want to keep trying the way you are, then the few times you get her into a canter, let her go for a bit, but don't let her stop on her own, you have to ask her to stop. That way she's listening to you instead of just doing whatever. Then, right away, especially while she's still cantering, reward her! Scratch her all over, talk to her and tell her she did well. Letting her stop is another way of rewarding her. Once she gets it, end on a good note. Don't ask her to do it again for at least another day or she'll get frustrated or possibly ruin any progress you made. oh yeah, another reward when she does something right is to relax your rein and make sure you're not pulling on her, and try to not kick the crap out of her as much unless you need to to keep her going. In that case, try a bat on her butt. Bat's make more noise than sting, so they're a nicer way to have another cue. Use it on her butt and not her shoulder, because her butt is where the motor is! If that all doesn't work, do some trail work. Your mare could just be bored with going in circles all day. It's just liek people, running track is sooo boring and I'm not doing it again this year because it's too boring; we only ever ran in circles. She's probably feeling the same way. Horses are much more willing to canter if they're on a trail. Especially if there's someone else they want to catch up to. Find a big field and just let her have fun and run loose sometimes. I promise you, if you get in a big field and ask her to go, she will. But be careful about getting her to canter by following other horses. When I did that with my pony, he'd just cut across the ring and follow the horses everywhere when I got back from doing trail work. It took me a month of ring and trail work alone for us to fix that. Remember, all work and no play makes for just as unhappy a horse as a person.