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Need help with super fast pony!?
Well there is a new pony at my yard and she is super fast and I am riding her.I can ride her very well in walk trot and jumping but its the canter...
So I calm down her trot and then sit and ask for canter and then she almost gallops away in an instant. I use half halts but I feel like a useless rider.My instructor said it just needs work and practise so I was wondering if you guys have any tips on how to calm down her canter?
Thanks x
She might be unbalanced. If she's green, she probably doesn't really know how to carry herself and a rider in the canter, so she just goes really fast.
Think about it like this: If you're running downhill (similar to how an unbalanced horse would be cantering) and start losing your balance or getting out of control, you're automatically going to go a bit faster to try and catch your weight. It's the same concept as putting your hands out to catch yourself as you fall. That's what this pony's doing: catching herself.
Try balancing excercises. Do circles, get her to bend and engage her hindquarters. You want her to be able to comfortably bring her inside hind leg under and slightly across her body easily when she's circling. This is the motion she has to do when cantering: bring that inside hind in to "hold" herself upright.
Do a lot of transitions. Walk-halt-trot-halt-walk-back up-trot-walk-etc. (not the canter) Don't let her run into them. Half halt before hand and then PUSH her into your hands using your seat. This is REALLY important, if you don't she'll just get unbalanced. You want her to "rock" back onto her hindquarters through the transition. It's really important you get these down BEFORE you start her in the canter. You're going to use transitions (once they're established) to help control her canter.
Also try some basic lateral work, leg yields, turn on the forehand/haunches (I prefer turn on the haunches to turn on the forehand, as turn on the forehand can be counter-productive, but if she doesn't know how to do them, turn on the forehand is easier), shoulder/haunches-in (if she can do them or you think you can teach her them). Just remember to ask with your seat and leg, NOT your hands. You need her to strengthen her hind end.
Once you've done that try transitions within the gaits. This isn't really necessary, but it will help. Once you're ready to take her back to the canter, it will be easier if she already knows how to collect and extend in walk and trot.
When you start to canter, do a circle first in trot. This will help set her up and have her balanced BEFORE she starts to canter. Make sure you sit the transition, and it has to be balanced. If it's not, bring her back and start again. This is the most important bit. If you have a bad transition into canter, it's going to be really hard to control the canter itself. If you think she's capable, you can try going from walk to canter, as she will have to be more balanced for this if she's to do it properly. However, you run the risk of her "jumping" into it and being impossible to control (although she will have used her hind end properly). If she does this, brig her back but not abruptly. You want her to understand that it wasn't the transition (although it won't have been good, she'll have used her hind end, which is what you want), but the canter that's not acceptable. The other thing she might do is trot then canter. This is BAD. Even if it's a great trot-canter transition, you asked for a walk-canter transition, and you shouldn't accept it. But you can't bring her back if the canter's good, because that's the other thing you want. See my point?
Try and do your circle in a corner, and ask for the canter coming out of the corner on to a straight line. This way, if she does lose her balance, she won't have to rush so much to catch herself. So trot a circle sitting, ask for a canter coming out of it, make sure it's a good transition, canter a few strides, and trot again. You NEED to trot soon, or she'll just start to rush again and you won't have gained anything. Pat her as you come back to trot. She needs to learn that you want a balanced controlled canter. You just have to keep repeating this. Gradually you can canter for longer.
When you start, keep her on straight lines.Circling in canter's going to be hard for her, so don't ask for it. You'll end up losing anything you've gained: she'll lose her balance, panic, and revert back to her old habits. Trot in all the corners. You can use this as a step up from the circles, the corner can be used to rebalance her quickly once she gets the hang of it. Once you do start circling, circle BIG. You can also introduce leg yield in the canter now, but don't expect much.
Just keep working with her and she'll get it. It'll take a while, but you'll end up with a really nice horse.
A tip for riding her canter: sit back but don't sit heavily. As in, you want a light seat so she can figure out how to use her hind end with out you bouncing around (just an expression, I'm not saying you bounce, but that it's harder for her to use her hind end if you're sitting. Do you see what I mean?), but you don't want to lean forward as this will make it really hard for her. I can't really tell you the right balance between the two, you have to find it yourself. But you'll know when you've found it, because she should become easier to ride.
Hope this helps!
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