How To Canter On A Horse Without Fear

hi there it's josie and today i'd lo like to  talk about being scared to canter i do read the   comments on the videos and some of the comments in  there have been people saying that they're scared   of canter and i do know that that is a problem  for some people so first of all please don't be   ashamed um if it's you it is fine you are allowed  to be frightened of canter but what we need to do   is find a way to get you through that so you can  canter so what i hope to show you today is just an   exercise that can help you get yourself ready to  canter so you don't even need to canter to do this   this is actually getting yourself ready so that  when you have a canter that you are set up for   success that you don't fail and that it's  not a terrifying experience for you because   let's face it horse riding is meant to be fun i  tell myself that all the time it is meant to be   fun yes if you're going to train a horse or you're  going to ride a horse you are going to stretch the   boundaries of your comfort without a doubt but  to be absolutely terrified and do something   on a horse does you no favors and certainly  doesn't do any favors for the poor horse because   he will read your body language and how  you're feeling and then your energy and   then he will probably get himself a little  bit uptight as well and that helps nobody so the first thing is to admit to  yourself that you're scared to canter   and that's okay the second thing is to realize  that what i'm going to teach you today can take   one day can take one week can take one month might  take a year it doesn't matter it's not a race   don't do something that you are scared of doing as  i said yes you have to press push the boundary so   there's going to come a point where you realize  you're a little bit nervous but you need to take   the next step but if you're scared do not do it  that would be like me training a young horse and   expecting it to be able to do something when it is  fearful i put all the foundations in place for the   young horse to be able to take the next step  with some confidence doesn't mean they're not   tentative because sometimes they are let's talk  about running over a tarp so they are tentative   to go over it but i build them up with all of the  success that i can and all the tools they need to   then be able to do it they might go over and go oh  my god oh that was awesome okay so you i want to   set you up for canter like that it's really simple  really easy but you have to do the work i can't do   it for you so another prereq so a prerequisite for  you to be able to have a good experience cantering   is to have a horse that is actually balanced  in the canter for you to canter on it's no   good getting on a horse that's running and  scrambling and losing his balance you're not   going to have a good time and you're not going  to feel very confident that i can promise you so   if your horse is like that either find somebody a  friend or someone with a horse that has got a good   balanced canter that you can have your can you can  do your canter on all these exercises i'm going to   show you can be done on your horse but whilst  you're doing them pop your horse on the lunge   and do some trot canter transitions to help your  horse find his balance in canter now horses that   are unbalanced in canter on the lunge will usually  run really fast because they're chasing their own   balance they're trying to find it so what you  try to do then is you do walk trot sorry pardon   me you do trot to canter transitions lots of them  half a circle canter trot quarter of a circle of   canter trot because the trot canter transition  will help the canter become more balanced now let's get on to you so i'd just like  to point out one more thing this is what   i see a lot of people do who are frightened to  canter is they're asking their horse to canter   well they think they are but what  they're doing with their body   and their reins or maybe just not their reins  but their body is that they're going but don't   but don't but don't because they're frightened now  that's really unfair for your horse because he's   he won't be able to work out what you're asking  him it's very confusing so you need to be pretty   consistent with what you're going to do and  if you'd like to know what the canter aids are   i have i'll link them in a video up here because  i've done a video on them but if you're really   nervous put your horse on the lunge and teach him  to canter from the word canter it's not hard to do   and that way when you're on his back you can just  say canter and he will canter much easier for you   whilst you're trying to get some confidence in  the canter all right so there's no excuses here   you can start this from the standstill so what  am i going to teach you i'm going to teach you   to find your balance on the horse so that when he  canters you're already certain that you have your   balance and then you have confidence to go into  canter so what you are going to do is you are   going to stand in your stirrup irons and find  your center so you are balanced what you will find   you may need to shorten your stirrups  a little bit and i'll do mine hang on thank you all right so i've just put my  stirrups up two which is making my knee   bang into the knee block here anyway but you  need to be able to stand up in your stirrups   and stay balanced on your horse not hanging on  to anything in the beginning you may like to just   have a little piece of mane there to help you i  did that in the beginning but you need to be able   to find your own balance and what i would like  you to do is to up and lean forward and feel what   happens when you lean forward and then lean  back and feel what happens when you lean   back now you will find that your shoulders are in  front of your hips because what you're doing is   you're making a z shape so i've got my shoulders  over my knees my hips over my heels because these   joints and my ankle joint are going to be the  ones that are going to absorb the movement all   right so you need to be able to do that at the  standstill sorry rebel the saddle's slipping here   so you need to be nice and balanced and play  with your center of gravity and because that's   the best way to find where the center is so i've  got my center here so once you can do it in the   standstill get your horse walking rebel's going to  go what are you doing and then get up in the walk   and you probably won't feel that you're absorbing  much movement here you can hang on i want to make   sure you're not leaning forward because if you  do this in the canter and something happens the   horse spooks you're in the ejector seat position  in fact never on horses should you be leaning too   much forward because it is called the ejector  seat because that's what happens they stop drop   through a shoulder and you get ejected out so  you should be able to just find yourself balance   if you lose your balance a little sit back down  resettle everything and find it again good boy   so once you can do that in walk you go on  and do it in trot so go off in rise trot find your nice rise trot bit and then stand in  your irons what you're going to find here is   you're going to have to be nice and supple  through your ankle your knee and your hip   so that it can all concertina down and be the  shock absorber don't lean forward don't lean back   because you see what happens sorry and he does  not like it i'm banging him in the back sorry mate   so you find the middle piece hold on to a little  piece of mane or pop your finger just on his neck   and then take it off and then pop  it back on and then take it off   and see if you can find your balance  and how does that help you in the canter   well if you can do that that's called a two-point  seat if you can do that in trot i promise you   canter is so much easier trot's actually  particularly on it's not too bad on rebel   he's got quite an elastic trot but on spider he's  got a shorter choppier trot and it's actually   harder to do and if you can do it in trot you  can do it in canter so let's see how that looks   hang on to a bit of mane if you need to and once  you can do it in trot ask your horse for canter and in a two-point much easier  good good good good boy and trot so what happens when you canter in a two two-point yes you stand up you get you feel your balance  is there hang on to a little bit of mane then   you can sit and feel the canter seat then you can  get up if you start to lose your balance and then   you can get back down and feel the canter seat  and you go whoopsies i'm losing my balance get up good i hope that helps it doesn't matter remember  if it takes one day one week one year   it's all about you feeling confident to go into  the canter i do promise you if you can two-point   in trot you can two-point in canter just remember  not to lean too far forward not to lean too far   back so take your time finding your balance point  there hope you enjoyed that thanks for watching

Channel: Basic Horse Training

Views: 309,328

Keywords: Canter on a horse, cantering on a horse, How To Canter On A Horse Without Fear, canter dressage, horse riding lessons canter, horse riding lessons for beginners, horse riding videos, horse riding, how to canter for beginners, how to ride a horse, horse training videos, horse riding lessons, horse training, how to ride a horse for beginners, horse training tips, horse training for beginners, basic horse training for beginners, horse riding basic training, basic horse training

Id: 3xIX-nZmLhA

Length: 11min 0sec (660 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 10 2022