Canter Aids...failing Miserably

[alexa]

I am another person having trouble with right canter. My horse always strikes off on the wrong leg to the right, always on the correct leg to the left i.e. always strikes off on the same leg. It does not matter if striking off from a walk or from a trot.  Once he did strike off on the correct leg but by doing a sort of jump he managed to change over.  Can someone be very kind and write below the exact aids to use. Maybe it is my weight in the wrong place causing this problem. He has a beautiful canter but I feel really useless as I cannot get him to lead with the correct leg.
thanks
alexa

[cptrayes]

Alexa, has he always done it? I had a friend whose horse started to offer canter on one lead only, and shortly afterwards it threw a splint. It was the beginning of the splint causing him to refuse the other canter lead.

If he never takes the correct lead, or changes immediately when he has, then it sounds suspiciously like he has a physical problem of some sort.

C.

[virtuallyhorses]

Yipppeee! I've just had a breakthrough on this!! Couldn't or wouldn't canter right (lovely balanced counter canters left lead ).  Started off as a slight balance problem on his part but we had worked on that with physio\massage and suppling on the lunge so that he cantered left or right on the lunge but I still had a problem when riding - err so guess who was causing the problem  

Turns out that there were 2 problems (well 3 if you count being crap at telling left from right lead )- initially I was tensing and 'grabbing' with legs and hands on the right canter -because of our initial right canters turning into unbalanced bolts (talk about horses getting bad habits what about riders!!   )  

My instructor forced me to canter without reins (on the buckle) and release my legs and we came up with a really ugly way of asking for right canter (jacknifing poor horse, since he's so clever at counter canter) and I was forbidden to canter on the left lead - note on the board so everyone knew and yelled at me if I was seen on the wrong lead.

As I practised with the relaxed,on the buckle canter I could also evaluate my transitions.  I reduced and then eradicated the ugly forced right lead transition request we'd worked out when I  realised that I was relying totally on my outside leg when going right - my horse was waiting for the correct aids, including inside leg for strike off and so always cantered left lead.  

Now cantering is a pleasure (for both of us - I swear he sighed when I got it right) and improving all the time.

[cptrayes]

Brilliant! Well done, you must be cock a hoop to have found the right answer. Congratulations.

C.

[lisa]

Larri
Totally understand about you weak side,I teach an amputee of whole left leg.If you are finding the advancement of inside hip a little fuzzy try taking the whole of the outside leg back a small amount.I know it sounds like I'm just giving you the basic canter aid but check that your outside leg is not just coming from the knee.Also the advice to look to the outside I totally agree with,this will slightly advance your inside shoulder and hopefully your hip unless you turn yourself into a human corkscrew!It should also help prevent any collapse to the inside as the shoulder slightly advanced extends the upper body on that side.As a last note don't beat yourself up too much :( riding is a constant learning experience and all of us that do it know deep down we will never acheive perfection but it's damn fun trying,or should be!

[alexa]

Sorry have not been back recently. Further up this post someone suggested he might have a physical problem since he always is correct on left lead and always wrong on right lead. I have been doing a lot of lunging recently and he is always CORRECT on both leads when lunged. So it is not him it is me and I think it is a weight problem on my part and I need to have my weight a bit more to the outside. It would be really handy to have a video then maybe I could see it better I am waiting till the weather gets better and try to borrow both a camera and someone to film . For the left lead it is so easy, and for the right so hard.....
Alex

[cptrayes]

Hi Alexa, it was me who thought there may be something physical, but you seemed to have proved that it's not him*. You mention moving your weight to the outside, but I have watched a lesson in a demonstration where the rider could not get canter right, and it was clearly because she was sat to the left, the outside, so be careful how far you move! I understand what you are trying to do though, lighten the inside shoulder. Perhaps you should try asking for the lead with his head and neck flexed slightly to the outside. This has a similar effect in allowing the inside shoulder to lift and often works to get a young horse to strike off correctly. If you can get him to strike off a couple of times on the correct lead, then it would give you a chance of getting "the feeling". Hopefully once you had the feeling, you would be able to get it without the outside flexion. Right canter is much harder for me too, so I sympathise. Sometimes I do a left transition, take an "internal eye" video recording of what it felt like, then turn round and try and replay my internal video on the other rein. Worth a try?

Caroline.

* there is still a slight possibility that he has a sore back which only causes him a problem when your weight is in the saddle and pressing on that side. I expect you've already checked for that though.  

[karen thompson]

Hi Alexa,

I used to have the same problem only with canter left with Sorrell. After close scrutany I discovered that this was also stemming from the problem I have of collapsing my left hip, therefore I was giving him the signal to go out of his outside shoulder, also I was tipping forward and throwing the outside rein at him. We tried the flexion to the outside and it worked but only when I was sitting straight and sitting up to help and encourage him to spring into the canter. Now I do a mental check list, before I ask for the transition. If it goes wrong I know it's me but boy does he get cross with me if I ask for canter then stop him cos he's on the wrong leg. Unfortunately though it's like all bad habits and takes concentration to get rid of it. Goodluck though !

Please can some one explain to me the canter aids you are all talking about, I was taught to slide the outside leg slightly back - are you guy's doing something different ?

Karen