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