How I am Giving Horse Riding Training Through E-mail

This is an e-mail conversation that I had with a friend of mine that is riding a horse in Spain. I gave my opinion to her based on experience, and I'm sure my opinion isn't perfect, but I thought I would share it as she wrote back to me that what I suggested had worked. I was a bit amazed myself but as I re-read my reply, it is based on experience when I school my own horse, opinions of my riding instructors and quite heavily on reading that I had done before.

Question:

I can't get the Thoroughbred X Lusitano mare that I'm riding to canter. She is a bit dead to the leg, although less when without a saddle. She has a lovely slow collected trot, but when I try to canter she just goes into a faster trot. If it was my horse I would use a whip to give her a tap, instead of having to kick all the time...I don't dare suggest it though. Would it be a good idea to put her on the lunge to try to canter her? Or is it me having to sit deeper?

Answer:

This is usually a balance issue. I have the same problem with canter with Nikki, or I did, and here's what I did to fix it. Start out lunging her and ask for canter on the lunge (free, no side reins) each way, start with just a few steps, work up to a full circle, then about three circles, once you get there, put side reins on her while she's lunging and start the transitions. Ask for just two or three steps from trot to canter then to trot again, then three more canter steps, trot, canter, about a bazillion times. Then at the end, ask for another full circle or two, make sure to do this each way. Don't get discouraged if on one side she misses her lead, that's her weaker side and it's only a balance issue, more transitions and time and she'll correct it herself, just stop if she's on the wrong lead and ask again. Try a bigger circle as a tight circle will not help her balance any.

Oh, and DO NOT use a cavesson to lunge with, put her bridle on and thread the lunge line from one side of the bit to the other. If you have the line on her nose you might pull her off balance. You want to interfere as little as possible. I know there are a lot of people would disagree with this but if you read Monty Robert's new textbook on riding, he explains this in much greater detail.