The Paces
NO 3 : THE CANTER
Half a pound of tuppenny rice,
Half a pound of treacle,
Thats the way the money goes,
POP goes the weasel.
Concluding my series of articles on the paces, this time we are going to look at the CANTER. In this series of articles, I have concentrated on the individual paces of the horse, the correct sequence and the basic requirements from a judge’s and a rider/trainer’s point of view. Dressage training is about the athletic development of the horse and the freedom and regularity of the paces is a fundamental necessity.
So what’s with the nursery rhyme, I hear you ask? The canter is a pace with a three beat rhythm, within one stride three clear beats can be heard with a moment of suspension between. A well known showing judge used to recite the nursery rhyme as a horse cantered in front of him as it matches the required rhythm exactly with each emphasis on a word in time with the leading leg.
The sequence of footfalls is such that the feet touch the ground in the following pattern, outside hind, followed by inside hind and outside fore together, followed by inside (leading) fore, then a period of suspension, then the sequence begins again.
WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF A GOOD CANTER?
The correct three beat rhythm is vital, and any loss or weakness of rhythm would be severely penalised at any level. The canter must be light, cadenced and regular. The moment of suspension is important to the regularity and the cadence. The horse must be well balanced with hocks placed correctly to support and elevate the forehand. The canter is often the best pace in a young Iberian, as they have such natural balance, and an uphill tendency from the start. Sometimes, the suspension is too great for the young horse’s balance, a far cry from the usual problems in other breeds of the canter being too downhill. However, this exuberance brings its own problems, not least that many riders find it difficult to ride, and may lack the experience or confidence to ride it forward.
THE FOUR TYPES OF CANTER
In competition, there are four distinct types of canter required, depending on the level.
Working Canter
The basic canter required at prelim and novice levels. Must be three time, balanced and active. The energy must come from the hindquarters, the horse using his back and accepting the contact. At the lower levels, one expects the horse to maintain a horizontal equilibrium.
Collected Canter
In this canter, the horse moves shorter(ie covers less ground) but also quicker (ie lighter and more mobile). The hindquarters are more engaged, and the forehand is considerably lighter. The hindlegs move quicker as the frontlegs move slower and more elevated.
Medium Canter
A pace between working and extended, the horse covers more ground with free, balanced strides, without falling onto the forehand.
Extended Canter
The horse covers the maximum ground possible, but without losing balance or rhythm, and remains on the correct contact, reaching for the bit.
COMMON PROBLEMS IN THE CANTER
The Strike Off: A persistent problem with canter strike off can be due to a physical weakness, so the first question to ask is whether there is any pain, discomfort or weakness in the back, or the hindlegs, or perhaps even in the contact. So the usual checks apply - teeth and the fit of the bit/noseband etc, back and the fit of the saddle, legs fore and hind, any stiffness or unlevelness etc. Once you have eliminated any physical reason, the next stage is the training.
Young horses frequently favour a particular strike off, this is due to lack of training/suppleness and general lack of strength. This improves with correct training and exercises.
It is important that the rider is correctly balanced and aligned, so check your own position and weight distribution - do you sit to one side, or are you weaker in one leg? Observe yourself and your horse on a video and see if the reason is to do with posture, balance or alignment.
In the moment of strike off, all the horse's weight, and the rider, is taken on the outside hind. If that hindleg is weak, or lazy, the horse will favour the other hindleg and the result is an incorrect strike off.
It is therefore important to ensure that the horse has the correct balance, and the rider aids correctly to get the desired strike off. It comes down to how you ask and where you ask.
First of all, make sure that you have a good trot rhythm, and that the horse is straight, not crooked. He should be nicely forward, not rushing and feel even in both reins. He should have the correct flexion at the poll, and have no more bend in the neck than in the body. To prepare for the transition, you must sit and then place your inside leg on the girth, your outside leg behind the girth, and you ask by using both legs lightly combined with an upward swing from your inside hip. It may help to raise the inside hand slightly, if necessary a tap with your schooling whip behind your outside leg may encourage him to step down with the outside hind.
Asking in a corner is helpful, especially the corner before a long side, or on a circle as then the horse has the correct bend and flexion. Other useful exercises are to turn off the centre line and ask for the transition, alternatively leg yield in trot from centre line to the track, and on reaching the track ask for canter or riding a small circle in trot before asking for canter. All of these exercises help to establish correct bend and flexion. It may also help to place a pole in a corner, pointing in to the school, and ask for the canter as you reach the pole or to practice canter from walk, these exercises help the horse to focus on where he is placing his legs and make the transition more precise.
Crookedness: All horses are born crooked, and it is our job as trainer to straighten them to make them stronger and remain sounder. In canter, the young horse often “hugs” the wall or fence in canter with his shoulders for security and balance. As the haunches are wider than the shoulders this results in him carrying the haunches in, so the hindfeet do not follow in the tracks of the forefeet. The older horse will have learnt that to carry the haunches in results in a loss of engagement and will do so as an evasion. Either way, it is the rider’s job to straighten his body. It is a mistake to try to move the haunches, you must always put the shoulders in front of the haunches. So ride a shoulder-fore position on the fenceline, ie move the shoulders over one hoof to the inside, the outside fore placing down between the track of the hindfeet in order to bring the shoulders in alignment with the haunches and thus straighten the horse. When you have successfully straightened him, the canter will feel stronger and more powerful, but also more controllable.
If this is too difficult, riding counter canter on the long sides is also a valuable straightening tool. As the inside hind is now on the outside, so to speak, next to the fence, he cannot carry his haunches to the inside, so the fence straightens him for you. However in the young unbalanced horse it is often only possible to do this on the long sides, as he is too unbalanced to manage the short sides and the turns. However a useful exercise is to ride counter canter one long side, true canter the other to establish the idea of straightness in his mind.
Loss of Rhythm: This usually is connected with a flat canter, at its worst the rhythm becomes four time. The loss of rhythm is really the loss of the moment of suspension. In both cases the reason is a lack of impulsion, the canter is not forward enough. In order to put back the cadence, spring, suspension and rhythm, the horse needs to be ridden forwards, but not fast (which will flatten it even more). The hindlegs need to be more active, the inside hind being driven further under the horse’s body, nearer to the centre of gravity under your seat. This will enable him to take more weight behind, support his shoulders better and improve the suspension.
Lack of balance/on forehand: The young horse often finds the balance in canter a challenge until he has learnt to bring his hindlegs far enough under his body to support the rider and his shoulders. Not enough impulsion and engagement will mean that he falls onto the shoulders because the hindlegs are not taking enough weight. However, too much impulsion will also drive the horse onto the forehand. The skill is in coordinating the driving and containing aids, ie riding the horse forward and combining that with effective half halts to enable him to find the self carriage and balance.
Disunited: This occurs when the sequence of legs fails to follow the correct pattern, often occurring when schooling the flying changes, but also common with young horses who are still weak in the hindlegs and try to evade engagement of the inside hindleg by changing behind. The solution with the young horse is not to try and change back again, but to come back to trot, rebalance and then proceed to canter again. If he is losing straightness as a result, you will need to straighten him as well. With the problem in the changes, this is because the horse has changed in front and not behind, and this is usually because the canter does not have enough jump in order for the hindlegs to change in the air.
Problems in the Contact (above bit, behind bit, against the hand etc): the first thing to check with any problems in the contact are whether this is the result of pain or discomfort. As with the strike off, first check the bit, mouth, teeth, back etc and look for any unlevelness or stiffness. If there is no physical reason, look at yourself next – do you ride with a quiet still hand offering the horse a steady contact? Do you have an independent seat, or do you rely on the reins for balance? If the problem truly is a training issue for the horse then if he is above the bit, ride him forwards with a soft asking hand to encourage him to work in a rounder outline. A horse that is above the bit will also be hollow in the back, so encourage him to work over the back rather than ride the front end in. A more common problem with Spanish horses is the tendency to drop behind the vertical, be overbent, behind the bit etc. In this case, keep a steady and light contact and ride him more forward into the rein. Encourage him to fill the rein. If he drops his poll, use light soft upward half halts to raise the head and then ride forward into the new frame. If he comes against the hand, use a series of half halts to put him into better self carriage. If the half halt is not successful, make transitions from canter to trot and back again.
Bucking/kicking out at the leg: Again a common problem with young horses, often caused by tightness in the back, anticipation, high spirits, or evasion to the leg. All forms of nappiness – bucking, rearing, napping, and sometimes spooking, are the result of not going forward. The answer must always be to ride strongly forward, use a neckstrap if necessary. Make sure that you are not making the situation worse by gripping or tipping forwards. The worst kind of bucking is where the horse bucks from a standstill or by getting his head down low at zero impulsion, this method of intimidating the rider is often embellished with the corkscrew of the back, twisting as he pushes up behind. The type of bucking associated with going forward is much easier to sit to, as he catches you on the way down. If he kicks out at the leg, again do not be intimidated, provided your aid was polite, ie you did not catch him with the spur or overuse the whip, then repeat the aid and CONTINUE TO DO SO until he stops kicking out.
EXERCISES TO IMPROVE THE CANTER
To improve the rhythm: On a circle ride transitions from working canter to medium canter and back again. As the training progresses, ride collected canter to medium or extended canter and back again. Riding the transitions on a circle helps to engage the inside hindleg, but then continue to ride these transitions with in the pace on the long sides to check for straightness.
Use correctly spaced canter poles to help the horse to add spring or jump to the strides, these can be slightly raised at one end for even more gymnastic effect.
To improve the suppleness: Ride a circle of 20m diameter in working canter. Gradually reduce the size of the circle, depending on the level of training of your horse. A novice horse will cope with a circle of about 12m, an advanced horse will spiral down to 6m in preparation for pirouettes. As the size of the circle reduces, the canter needs to become more collected. It is imperative for the horse’s confidence, balance and joints that you do not decrease the circle to a size beyond which he is capable for his age, training and fitness.
To improve the balance, contact and suppleness of the back: Ride transitions from one pace to another, and within the paces. Ride canter – trot – canter on a circle, also canter – walk – canter, and for the more advanced horse, canter – halt – canter. Ride from the track in canter, onto a 10m circle and on returning to the track ride transitions to trot or walk. The fence helps to engage the horse and assists in bringing him back, so this is a very useful exercise with the horse who goes against the hand in the transitions. Walk to canter is always helpful for the horse who is on the forehand, helping to raise the shoulders and encourage him to step more under and take more weight behind.
To improve the straightness: As suggested before the best exercises are to ride in shoulder fore , and to work on the counter canter. Start counter canter by riding shallow loops off the long side, gradually progressing to 10m loops that go to the centre line. To ride a long side in counter canter, start at the quarter marker in trot, turning as if you were about to go across the long diagonal. As soon as you have left the track, turn back towards the track and immediately ask for a canter transition, so the horse has the correct bend and flexion for the counter canter, the leading leg will be the one closest to the fence.
Once the counter canter is better established, you can start to ride a turn onto the centre line, returning to the track in counter canter and when the horse accepts this, you can progress around the short side. Always keep the bend and flexion to the leading leg, keep your weight down through the inside leg (which will be on the outside of the school), and look to the outside. If you allow your eyes to stray to the inside, your balance and weight will shift and the horse will break or change, often only in front which would be a serious training error.
As training progresses up the levels, the canter becomes more important, the movements more complex. The ultimate canter exercise, showing the greatest collection, is the canter pirouette and in order to achieve this, the canter needs to have all the elements in place, the rhythm, the jump or spring, the elevation of the forehand, the strength in the haunches to support it, the suppleness to turn in balance, the acceptance of the contact, and the total submission to the aids in order to execute a perfectly balanced and poised pirouette without tension. All the hard work through the training scale will be worth it to enable the horse to have the strength and confidence to master this exercise, and any faults or gaps in the training will be all too obvious.
