- Canter and the speeds within the canter
is a really important skill.
And in today's exercise,
we're going to be talking about how
the seat functions in order to help
the horse understand what pace they should be in.
The canter is very much like a wave.
And it's a three beat gait so one two three,
one two three, one two three, one two three.
And when I'm just going along,
so I would say this canter right here for my horse
is probably an ordinary canter.
Maybe like a five or so.
If I wanted to speed him up,
I would ride with a little more energy into the motion.
And I wanted to slow him down,
I would sit against the motion.
All the while though I'm keeping this
rolling rhythm through my body.
And that's really important.
So when I slow him down,
I don't just quit riding.
I just ride that wave back,
back, back, back, back, back, back.
So it's important you keep that canter rhythm.
And then same thing when I ride him forward.
I'm keeping the rhythm and I roll it.
Roll it, roll it, forward, forward, forward, forward.
So there's a rhythm that I'm doing this within.
And then when he's in the canter that I'd like him to be in,
then I'm going to just maintain
and I'm going to harmonize with that.
So I'm quietly riding that wave
in rhythm in unity with him.
So now let me take a hold of my reins.
And we're going to talk about the canter.
So I'm going to bring him back.
And we're going to ride the slower canter.
But I'm maintaining the rhythm.
Now you'll notice we had a little moment
where we weren't in unity.
Because he ran into my reins a little bit.
My leg, as I'm doing this,
my leg also maintains the canter rhythm.
When I'm doing this slow canter,
I'm thinking about almost like
if you've ever dribbled a basketball
and as you're dribbling the basketball,
you've got that option to bounce
the ball underneath you right?
So you can bounce it and stand in one spot.
And just bounce it, bounce it, bounce it, bounce it.
So that's how it feels in my body.
I bounce my ball up and down.
Now, if I wanted to have him open up his canter,
I'd take my ball and I start bouncing it out in front.
And you can see.
He opens up his canter as I bounce the ball out in front.
And then once I'm at that pace,
I just keep bouncing that ball there.
And then if I want to bring him back,
I get over the top of my ball,
and I start bouncing it in place right?
Bounce it, bounce it, bounce it, bounce it.
Now,
the harmony is important.
So when my horse hits on the right answer,
and I'm actually going to walk here and take a little break.
When my horse hits on the right answer,
it's really important that I'm in unity with his feet.
And I think this is something
riders struggle with a little bit.
And that is they think of unity being
almost like nothing or almost like they just quit riding.
That they think that might be unity.
Unity is having the body feel of whatever
the speed of that particular gait that you want.
So the body feel it incorporates the rhythm.
So in the canter it's the one two three,
one two three, one two three.
So I'm still maintaining that rhythm.
It also the body feel incorporates
the energy within that rhythm.
So is it lively?
Are we really moving?
Or is it slow and contained and collected?
The body feel also incorporates how far out
are you pushing that in front of you right?
Are you taking that basketball down the court?
Or are you just dribbling it
right up and down here at the walk.
So when you're in unity with your horse
or when you're harmonizing,
and the harmony is letting them know
they're doing the correct thing,
it's not about quitting riding
and just sitting there and looking pretty.
What it is about is having that body feel of that canter.
And then when your horse comes off of that canter,
so let's say we were at like a regular canter,
just a ordinary working canter.
If my horse came off of that ordinary canter
and slowed down, then I would, this is my ball right?
And they came back here.
So I would say to my ball get out in front.
And then the minute they came back up
to that ordinary canter, that number five canter,
I would start bouncing it straight up and down
and harmonize and be like yes this is our rhythm.
Now if they started speeding up,
I would need to sit against the motion a little bit.
And I'd need to start bouncing that ball back
underneath me to bring them back.
And then the minute that they were
at that five canter again,
I'm going to bounce it straight up and down.
Right there in place.