Creating a good canter
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Posted
by Mara at
7/24/2009 11:53 AM PDT
on Horse Barn
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Having a good quality canter is important for every discipline, perhaps most for jumping. Therefore, having exercises to improve the strength, quality and adjustability of the canter is important for overall success.
While there are many flat exercises that can help to improve your horses canter in this week’s lessons I’m going to work on broken lines. Working on broken lines at the canter helps to improve balance as well as control and since we do this exercise at a collected canter it also helps to improve adjustability.
Start by creating a collected canter, if you need to make a small circle in the corner before heading down the long side. Keeping your horse slightly bent in the direction that you are tracking come slightly off the rail and then back to the rail in a very shallow arc. Focus on controlling your horses pace. As you become comfortable with the exercise you can make the arc bigger which will increase the difficulty.
