The canter is a big stepping stone in learning to ride, especially as adults. On most horses, the canter is a different and bigger movement than walk or trot, and it’s faster too! When you are learning, riding the canter requires both figuring out the canter movement plus feeling the added adrenaline of the faster gait. To add to the canter challenge, there are many conflicting stories about how canter should be ridden and what the movement feels like. In this video, I will explain how I teach t

Whenever you prepare for canter work, the transition starts earlier than you think. When you move from rising trot to sitting trot, and back again, nothing in your horse should change. Same rhythm. Same balance. Same connection. That only works if your hand follows the mouth. Not hanging on the reins. Not holding back when you sit. Your contact stays steady, but always with a forward intention. If you block with your hand when you sit, you interrupt the energy from behind. If you follow, the hor

This totally changed the way I rode the canter. 🐴👇 I was already an experienced rider, I was secure at the canter, but I couldn’t get a good collected canter from any horse I rode… because I was doing something funny with my seat that prevented them from going truly round. I had to understand this concept from the skeleton before I could finally nail a great canter. ❤️🙌 If you’d like the full video of this (9 minutes of skeleton learning) comment “canter” below and I’ll send it right over! Ca

The canter is a big stepping stone in learning to ride, especially as adults. To add to the canter challenge, there are many conflicting stories about how canter should be ridden and what the movement feels like. In this video, I will explain how I teach the canter movement – as a “swing”, not a “scoop”, and demonstrate the difference in how these two are often interpreted. | HorseClass

Whatever you do with your horse, canter work can be useful for improving posture, strength, back mobility and flexibility as well as mobilising and warming up anatomical structures and toning the abdominal muscles. The video shows an event horse cantering loose in the field and an advanced dressage horse ridden. Canter uses and encourages active flexion and extension both within the back and at the lumbosacral junction. Watch how the pelvis tilts with each stride. This does not happen in walk or