60 days under saddle
Oct. 3rd, 2008 03:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancing_crowSo how do you teach a horse to canter? I must admit all the horses I've been on to date have had walk, trot, canter and stop pretty well installed, and most of what I did was reach accomodations about how to get to any of those with the individual in question. Some of it was schooling them, some was schooling me.
I have been riding a 3 year old, backed this past summer by one of the horse-whispery types to a western saddle and snaffle bit. I probably should talk to him, but I thought I'd ask in general as well. We can walk, trot and halt nicely, and change the speed of the walk and trot within the gait. Feeling brave yesterday, I asked for a canter, and got .... well, what I got was two strides of canter and a buck, repeated endlessly. Since the buck is small and funny I didn't fly off, but it got old fast. I am thinking some lunging to get some voice commands working, and then coming back to it.
Comments are welcome, as are pointers to books. I have Lendon Gray's Lessons book which I love, but it is more for refining what you've got than starting from scratch.
I have been riding a 3 year old, backed this past summer by one of the horse-whispery types to a western saddle and snaffle bit. I probably should talk to him, but I thought I'd ask in general as well. We can walk, trot and halt nicely, and change the speed of the walk and trot within the gait. Feeling brave yesterday, I asked for a canter, and got .... well, what I got was two strides of canter and a buck, repeated endlessly. Since the buck is small and funny I didn't fly off, but it got old fast. I am thinking some lunging to get some voice commands working, and then coming back to it.
Comments are welcome, as are pointers to books. I have Lendon Gray's Lessons book which I love, but it is more for refining what you've got than starting from scratch.
