Can you canter a gaited horse

Have your horse thoroughly checked out by your veterinarian. Health problems can contribute to your horse's unwillingness to gait, especially if he has lameness issues that prevent him from moving correctly. Ask your veterinarian to identify any conformation flaws that also could be contributing to the problem. Consult a professional horse trainer who is experienced in working with gaited horses. Have the professional ride your horse as well as observe you riding so that she can see if you are confusing your horse accidentally with your cues or identify any other problems that may be occurring in your communication with your horse.

Bad habits on the part of a rider, especially a rider who is not used to riding gaited horses, can cause the horse to trot instead of pick up the gait you are asking for.

By Jennifer Klitzke As a five year old, Makana was just beginning her canter work in the spring of , as last year we focused on establishing a solid flat walk.

Related posts: B. Dressage is more than trot and the saddle you ride in! He must be able to canter without you on his back well, before you try it undersaddle. Make sure when you ask for the canter in the roundpen, you say canter, or cluck twice or kiss etc. Then when you ask undersaddle, give him the same cue and ask with your outside leg, once he canters, only go a couple of steps and come back to a walk and relax, so he understands that was the correct answer.

As you progress, then work on cantering in a large circle to help balance and slow the canter down. If this is too much work, then you may want to take the quick way out and spend the money and buy one that already does it. Thats why the really good ones are expensive, they've had the breeding and the training to get there.

I have taught many gaited horses, to canter. From the young to the old and the older ones are not easy to do, but if you do it right, they will learn to canter and yes over time they will get better and better.

In the process you and your trainer if not familiar with the gaited horse, will feel some odd things in the saddle because these horses will trip as they are learning, cross canter, bunny hop, pace canter and do all sorts of funny things while you are teaching them. With a little practice, this method should encourage a correct canter from even a very laterally oriented horse.

Perhaps you can see how the canter, which requires using diagonal sets of legs - one pair together, one pair in opposition - will help condition and train a pacey horse to break up lateral action.

Now it's another story altogether if your horse is more on the trotty end of the gait spectrum. Such horses find cantering all-too-easy, especially when compared with the hard work of performing a four-beat gait, in good form. Such a gait requires a lot of motion, front to back, through the horse's back - while trotting generally only requires that the horse jump from one set of diagonal legs to the other, requiring much less coordination and effort. What frequently happens when a trotty horse is permitted to canter is that whenever the rider cues for gait, the horse will attempt to jump into a canter, instead.

The rider then checks the horse back, and again asks for gait. The result of this is that the horse soon learns it can just shuffle on its forelegs while jumping from side to side on its hind legs, and there's very little the hapless rider can do to correct the situation. I call this mish-mash gait the 'cant-a-lope,' and once a horse has developed this habit, it can be very difficult to correct.

For that reason it is my recommendation that a diagonally oriented horse never be allowed to canter until the gait has been very well established - if then. If you do decide you'd like to canter your trottier horse, always cue for the canter from the halt or walk, and never from gait this is true for any gaited horse.

Establish very clear, and differing, cues for canter and for gait. I recommend verbal cues such as 'Walk on! I also recommend that trotty horses not be permitted to trot until their saddle gait has been well confirmed. Again, this is because we're in the process of building muscle condition and neurological memory for the intermediate gait - allowing the trot during this process may be confusing and counter-productive.

All of this may sound rather complicated when seen in black and white. But when you're on your gaited horse, and have gained a 'feel' for its movements, you'll find this work to be fun and highly rewarding.

It will pay off not only in smooth saddle gaits and long term soundness.