Standardbreds + Cantering

[concise]

Okie dokes, so. My horse was a pacer on the track for about two years, where they forebode cantering. Now that he's my little pleasure horse, we need to work on that. I have some idea of where to start...but not much. What we've done so far: Having his land in a canter from a small crossrail jump, or simply asking for the canter in corners, where

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[whitearab]

I did this with my boy. I tried everything, and still ended up with a "four beat canter" (ie, the two legs that are supposed to come down together came down slightly seperated, so it was more like a gallop or trot movement). You will notice that when they do this they bring down the legs on the same side at the same time, so basically they suppliment the canter beat (where the opposite legs come down at the same time) for the pace beat (where legs on the same side come down at the same time). It's a mental difference between lateral and diagonal thinking and muscle training. STB's are trained to move laterally.

You can't really get anywhere until you know exactly how the legs move in all five gaits so that you can properly judge whether or not he is ACTUALLY cantering, or just doing a 4 beat "lateral" canter. Even though I'd had ten years of exsperience with horses, I didn't really get to understand gaits until I tried to teach my STB to canter lol!

If he finds it easier to pick it up on a corner, I would move to the roundpen, where you can work him either from the ground or from the saddle. If he is weaker on the right than left, spend 75% of your time going right, and 25% going left. Always finish only AFTER he has got a few good, solid canter steps...if that means switching to the left, do it.

The trick to getting a canter is to teach them to elevate their front end. So whenever they take a proper canter step, they should get lots and lots of upward movement in the front. To force my guy to lift his front, I used poles in the roundpen. I started out with one, which I would push him over relativeley quickly so he didn't have a chance to flop over it. He doesn't have to jump it, just go over it with lots of lift in the front end. If he gets his front end up you will have gotten at least one good canter step, and if he's a good boy he'll continue the elevation for a few steps after the pole. The instant you get those nice, clear, elevated steps (even just one is fine to begin with), let him quit. My horse goes NH and he is naturally lazy...so for him the reward is that I just back off on all my ques (i usually turn away from him or something), telling him he didn exactly what I wanted and I don't want anything else from him just now. Eventually I ask him to try it again, hoping to get more canter steps etc. I will also add poles (four around the roundpen), so that he is regularly being forced to lift that front end and to use/build the proper cantering muscles and stops thinking laterally.

Anyway this is super long, but I hope it helps. In Sum: Elevating the front end, building muscle, only taking a few steps at a time, avoiding the 4-beat canter, and getting rid of lateral thinking.

[whitearab]

Oh yeah, and I should add that my horse canters like a pro now. :)

[concise]

No panter on his left side, just the right. We've been working on the right exclusively, ending with the left, so he knows he did good. I'll try some canter poles, haha, he usually just launches them instead of cantering over them.

[icarus_abides]

I don't really have anything to add, just wanted to say that I think this is a great idea :)

Definitely something that I will try for my QH as well. Thanks!