Cantering the Draft or Carriage Type Horse (current freebie!)

draft horse cantering



The Draft or Carriage type horse is often a popular choice for amateur riders, as they are usually known for having great temperaments. They are typically quiet, sensible, and forgiving, and can be used for lower levels of just about any discipline. One challenge that this type of horse commonly faces is that of cantering under saddle with a rider on their back. This is because they were bred to pull weight, and the most efficient way for them to do that is to lean forward over their shoulders when they move. But that way of moving makes it hard for them to even stay in the canter, unless there is quite a bit of speed involved. Here are some things you can do to help them to find it easier to stay in the canter, and to improve the quality of their canter:

Because this type of horse has such a powerful push from behind when they move, they push their weight forward onto their forehand. And when any horse's balance is forward in the canter, they have to canter quite fast in order to avoid breaking to trot. So they are not being disobedient or lazy when they fall into trot, they are just dealing with a balance issue. They need to learn how to carry more weight behind. So any of the exercises in this article in the area of "how to increase the carrying power" of the horse's hind legs will be helpful.

If you are working with a horse that finds it hard to pick up the canter at all,
try using a figure eight to pick it up instead of circles. The kind of figure eight where you go across the diagonal MXK, and ask for your left lead at K, and then circle and come back to the trot. Then go across the other diagonal FXH and pick up your right lead. This allows you to really get a strong trot across the diagonal, and then you can "let" the canter happen naturally in the corner.

To help the horse more easily stay in the canter, and to improve the balance of the canter, so that the horse can canter more slowly - you need to show him how to "coil the spring" of his hind legs. Think of the joints in the hind limbs, and the hock joint in particular, as a coiled spring:

cantering_the_draft_or_carriage_type_horse


When the horse is pushing forward strongly (and not carrying very much weight behind), it is as if this spring is very stretched out, leaving very little stored energy. To put more stored energy into this spring, you have to "re-coil" it. Stored energy (or impulsion) will make it easier for the horse to stay in the canter while going more slowly.

One specific exercise that works well for the heavier type of horse is to do frequent transitions from canter to halt (with a rein back if the halt was difficult to obtain), and then right back in canter. It might be hard to imagine how halting and backing up could help a horse keep going easier in the canter. You might think that it would make more sense to just really keep kicking and riding forward. But go back to thinking about that spring. If the horse is already in a long, strung out frame (with a stretched out spring), kicking and asking for more forward won't really get you very far. No matter how much the horse wants to obey you, he is limited by his stretched spring. When you engage the hind legs by riding forward into the halt, asking for rein back, and then asking for canter again, the spring will be more coiled. And then his power will be more at your disposal.

Remember that since the outside hind leg is the first step of the canter stride, you should be focused on keeping that outside hind leg engaged and underneath the horse, both in the canter itself and in the transitions into and out of it.
That will allow for both hind legs to come more up underneath the horse's body in the canter stride. To help engage the outside hind leg, keep the horse's neck very straight, by keeping your outside shoulder back, your outside leg on, and your inside rein soft.

And another helpful (and fun!) exercise is to set up canter poles on the ground, 9 to 12 feet apart, depending on the size and stride length of your horse. Canter poles make the horse rock back slightly on their hocks every stride, and will build strength in the canter. And if you like, you can raise the canter poles up into lines of small bounce fences for even more effect.


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