Learning How to Canter - Part 1 First Steps

Cantering

Cantering Rah around the cross country course.

After learning the trot, the next gait you will learn to ride is the canter. The canter is a three-beat gait, as opposed to the trot which is a four-beat gait. The canter is a smoother gait that covers more ground than the trot and has a rocking horse like feeling. Before learning to canter, you should have good balance in the saddle, a stable and supportive leg, a stable jumping position, and a basic understanding and command of the aids (hand, seat, leg). In this blog post, I will cover the basics of learning to canter, I will post a Learning to Canter – Part 2, that will teach you how to pick up the correct lead and begin to sit and finesse the canter. Then round out the series with a Part 3 which will talk about the different “seats” the rider must learn at the canter and when to use them.

Below are the steps I follow when teaching my students how to canter. There are many ways to teach someone to canter, so this will differ some from how your trainer is teaching you.

Step 1

I prepare the student on how their body position should be. Before cantering, all my students must be comfortable in the jumping position, because for the first time cantering, the student should be slightly off the horses back with a slight, closed bend in their hips; not as forward as a jumping position with their bodies, but up and out of the saddle some for them to be able to use the neck to balance and follow the motion, and because people bounce and lose their balance faster when trying to be fully seated.

Step 2

I put the horse on a lunge line and add a neck strap for the rider to hold. Putting the horse on a lunge line allows me to have more control of the horse in the event the rider loses balance or gets scared. Sometimes, a horse is uncomfortable with the novice rider learning to canter because they bounce and flop around. On occasion, a horse that is not used to carrying a novice rider will become uncomfortable with the new rider’s instability, and could get too quick, crow hop or buck. If you are riding a school horse, it’s unlikely you will need to worry about this. Situations like this arise when a person has bought their own horse and, it is not used to teaching a rider to canter. If you have any concerns about your horse not tolerating a new rider at the canter, ask to borrow a lesson horse.

Step 3

I have the rider drop the reins and hold the neck strap as if it were the reins. The neck strap does two things. First, it acts as an O-Shit handle, allowing the rider to use the strap to balance and stay on if they get jostled lose, as it is inevitable the rider will experience some balance issues. Second, it keeps the rider from pulling on the horse’s mouth, causing the horse pain or discomfort.

Step 4

I send the horse out into a circle on the lunge, and ask the rider to begin posting at the trot. The rider should continue to post trot until they are comfortable and have their balance. Once the rider signals that they are ready, from the ground, I will ask the horse to canter. After years of experience, I can tell when a person is uncomfortable or a situation is unsafe, and I stop the horse and we change the plan. For those that are comfortable, I let them go until the horse stops, which is usually what happens or, the rider looks tired and/or starts to lose their composure.

Typically, what happens when the rider begins to canter is they get unbalanced after a few strides and the horse will stop. Once the horse is stopped, I ask the rider how they felt, answer any questions they might have, and send them back out to do it again with any minor adjustments that might be needed. Some riders pick up the canter quickly, others do not. There are a lot of factors as to how quick a person might become comfortable in the canter. The individuals balance and comfort on a horse is the biggest factor. Other factors include how smooth a canter the horse has, the amount of saddle time the rider has previously, the fit of the saddle on both the horse and rider, and clothing. By the time a person is cantering, they should be wearing breeches or half chaps if ridding English.

Step 5

Teaching the rider to how to ask for the canter and not using the neck to balance. For safeties sake, I keep new riders on lunge lines until they can leg the horse into the canter themselves from the trot, ad stop the horse using the reins, and appear to have enough balance where they can take their hands comfortably off the neck and balance and steer.

For students at this level, I do not worry about teaching them how to pick up the correct lead. To get the horse to canter, I ask them to get into the forward seat they have been using, place their hands on the neck, trying to keep slight contact for steering and staying on the rail, and then squeeze with their legs. A more experience horse will typically figure out they are supposed to canter with the added leg pressure, lack of posting (you should stop posting) and the forward body position. In general, a forward body position encourages a horse to go forward.

In preparation, I will have the student posting trot around the ring, and halfway through the short wall of the ring and headed home/towards the gate, I tell them to start asking for the canter.  It will take a few strides for the rider to get the horse to canter, and I only allow a new rider to canter down the long wall and then stop. I will stand at the end of the long wall to catch the horse in the event the rider cannot get them to stop.

I will progressively add more distance and time to the canter segments as the rider becomes more comfortable and balanced. Once the rider can comfortably canter around and steer, I will begin to teach them about leads and sitting the canter.

To learn more about how to pick up the correct canter lead and begin to sit the canter, come back for Part 2 of Learning How to Canter.