# Teaching a horse to canter on correct lead



## RubysGold (11 August 2009)

I'm riding a horse for someone at my yard. 
He's 10 years old, and every time you ask for canter, its on the wrong leg, I think he even does it on the lunge. 
Can anyone give me tips on how to teach him to set off on correct leg.
Nickie


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## M_G (11 August 2009)

Lots of stopping and starting, I always stop when its the wrong lead (dont tell the horse off) lots and lots of praise when its the correct lead.

Have you tried over exaggerating the bend and using your outside leg as well as the inside (I only use inside leg to ask for canter once its established)


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## Hippona (11 August 2009)

Place poles in the corners of the arena...approach in trot and make sure you are rising on the correct diagnonal.

Ask for canter (slightly more weight on the inside seat bone, outer leg behind the girth) as you almost upon the pole and 'in theory' he should strike off on the correct lead.

Flex the horses head slightly to the outside as this will help him to left off with his inside fore.

If he's also doing it on the lunge has he been checked to make sure there isn't a physical reason why?

Good luck


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## SDH (11 August 2009)

My instructor tells me to do the opposite of what M_G just said. If you give the correct aid and horsey picks up wrong lead, let him canter round &amp; round on it ... he will soon find it uncomfortable ....... then come back to trot and ask for canter again ...... if correct lead is achieved this time, praise else, repeat!

If they pick up the wrong lead and you bring them back to trot, all they learn is to "get out" of cantering, pick up wrong lead!.
Ditto on the lunge too.


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## milliepops (11 August 2009)

I think everyone has different tips for this, but if it was me I would first make sure there wasn't a physical reason for the horse striking off incorrectly (subtle lameness/poor saddle fit/muscle soreness etc).  Is it on both reins, or just the one that he strikes off wrong?  

You'll need to establish a nice forward trot, he needs to be off your leg but not running on, and the key IMO is to keep the horse in balance.

What I have found helpful is to ask for canter as you come onto a short side of the school, so that you effectively have 2 corners coming up which might help the horse to strike off correctly as he will want to stay balanced.

Many people ride round the corners with flexion to the inside, but this doesn't always help if you have too much bend, it might be putting the horse out of balance so he will struggle to strike off well.  You might get a better result with a slightly greater contact down the outside rein (not so much as to flex the horse to the outside, just a bit more feel), and then tap behind outside leg with a schooling whip as you give the aid, just to reinforce it.  If he strikes off wrong, bring him back to a good trot as quickly as possible, and ask again.

Good luck!


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## Embob1 (11 August 2009)

When the pony I ride used to pick up the wrong lead on the left rein, my instructor would get me to 'spiral'.  So, ask for canter, if it was the wrong lead, go on a 20m circle, and continue to make it smaller, then pony would change because he found it difficult to canter on the wrong leg on a small circle, then spiral back out and continue to canter, on right leg 
	
	
		
		
	


	





Also, walk to canter worked well, and really exaggerating the corner you ask for canter in.

After lots of hard work (in my case it wasn't so much down to me, but pony's owner 
	
	
		
		
	


	




) he doesn't pick up the wrong leg any more


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## Kenzo (11 August 2009)

Make sure your sat up straight and your horse has plenty of impulsion in a nice balanced slow sitting trot, your horse needs to be light in your hands but you need feel that energy coming through from behind, then you can ask your horse what to do with it by using your aids, but it needs to there in the first place in order to play around with it and for him to pick up and learn what you are asking.

The slower the trot, the more balanced and smoother the transition to canter will be, so make sure your horse is not running onto the forehand, the key is the in the trot.

Warm up correctly on both rains, doing lots of transitions walk to halt, halt to trot (if you can) and do some bending etc so every part of your horse is loosened up and warm.  Also making sure that leg on means forward, so he needs to switched on to your leg aids, otherwise your wasting your time.

Then push on into canter into a forward seat and let him have loose canter so he can stretch down, this helps them unwind after plenty of trot work.

Then ask for your contact and his concentration back again, this time a little more so your horse is working on higher head carriage, this will make it easier when asking for canter aids, you'll see why.  

Some horses work better asking on a corner, some have the totally opposite effect so it depends on what bad habits you as a rider have or if your horses muscles are more developed on one side, or if your horse has a phyical problem that has not been identified.  Every horse and rider has a better side, so its important to find the where the weakness is, which is why people hit a brick wall with cantering work when schooling. 

You need to feel your horse coming through into your outside rein to enable to use your half halt this collects the front end when you apply your aids the horse then has to think about what he's gong to do with his back end (to put in simple terms), look where you are going and sit up straight but  deep, this automatically puts the weight of your seat bones in the right place, if you think about it while sat in a chair and you (imagine your on your horse riding a circle asking for say the right canter lead) look that way and see how your seat bones shift very slightly?

Then apply your outside leg behind the girth and if you want really stick it back quite a lot (even if it feels silly) so you send a message that is clear and different to what you have usually done so your horse 'thinks' about what your doing with your legs, keep your inside leg on the girth or where you usually have it really to prevent them falling in, you'll feel the horses hind back leg and his hips alter ready to step into canter, (if you practice this on your horses good rein, then you learn to know what to feel, so you can practice this on the rein your horse has problems with) then you know when to give with the outside rein to signal 'now' so your horse literally steps into canter, you need to flex head a wee bit to the outside (sounds silly) but you'll see what I mean when the horse does it. 

Once on the correct lead, canter a full circle but don't do this for too long, it will be hard work if there not used to 'going that way' and your job is make it easy for them and say come on you can do it its not hard, so they are encouraged out of their comfortable zone, so little short bursts of canter keeping your hands up and looking where you are going, using your voice as encouragement and ask to come back into trot, do this before they decide from themselves...before then run back into a trot because they have run out of steam.


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## puddleshark (12 August 2009)

With some horses, going straight into canter from rising trot works (no idea why!)


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