hi it's josie and today i'd like to talk to  you about canter in particular canter aids  

and i'd really like for you to ask yourself this  question do you know what aids you use to ask your  

horse to go into canter and if you can't answer  that question with a 100% clarity then how can  

you expect your horse to know that you want him  to canter perhaps he thinks he's got a multiple  

choice question and he's just choosing whichever  one he thinks is right now that's not very fair  

for you or particularly your horse so in today's  video i'm going to show you the aids that i use  

to get my horses to go into canter the aids i use  to ask for canter and it doesn't matter if i'm  

riding a green horse that i've just started under  saddle or if i'm riding an older horse that's a  

little bit more advanced the aids are exactly the  same for all horses it's just that their response  

to those aids are a little bit different  depending where they are in their education  

so if you get some value from this video i would  love it if you would give me a thumbs up and if  

you haven't subscribe to the channel bottom right  hand corner of the screen you'll find the button  

to subscribe my hope is that by telling you this  from the very beginning how i teach a completely  

green horse you will have an understanding on how  to teach your horse and you'll also have the tools  

to go back if you need to teach another horse so  with a really green horse that i'm starting under  

saddle in the round yard the canter aid starts  with a kiss a kissing noise i don't use a click  

the click i use to ask the horse to go forward  the kiss is a specific aid for canter because i  

want the horse to actually canter once the horse  understands that the kiss is for canter i then  

bring the actual word canter in i always preface  my word canter with the word AND so it becomes  

AND canter if you watch any of my young horse  handling videos or lunging i'll link one up here  

you will see that i use the word and a  lot the AND is basically equivalent to  

the half halt under saddle it's just an aid  to tell the horse listen something else is  

coming i'm about to ask you to do something  that's literally what a half halt is if i'm  

training an older horse or one that i don't  think has an understanding of the canter aids  

and understanding the canter aid is a foundation  that you should put down on your horse  

because it flows onto so many things it allows  you to do beautiful transitions be that a simple  

trot to canter transition walk to canter halt  to canter or even flying changes they all  

their their beauty and perfection comes from  teaching your horse the canter aid correctly  

so if i'm training an older horse or a horse that  i don't think has an understanding of the cant  

canter aid sorry i'll take that horse back  and pop it on the lunge and i will teach it  

to canter on the lunge to the word canter  like i do with the young horse in the round  

yard that's so that i can then come  on and we can take it to the saddle  

so once the horse understands the correlation  between the word canter and the canter transition  

itself we take that to the saddle once it's  in the saddle though YOU have to understand  

how the horse canters because that has a huge  bearing on how and when we ask the horse to canter  

and to set him up to do a successful transition  and do what we ask and i know that you like me  

want to set your horse up for success so this  might sound a little boring theory but it actually  

is quite important so the horse canters the first  stride of canter starts with the outside hind leg  

then it is the diagonal pair and then it  is the leading front leg now if you want  

to know how you should use your seat when  we're cantering which would definitely help  

to do transitions i'll link that video up  here go and watch that and then come back here  

but it's the outside hind leg that starts  the canter transition it pushes the horse  

up into canter then it's diagonal pair then  the leading front and how does that relate  

let me tell you and i promise i'm going  to get to some canter transitions in just  

a minute but you do need to understand this so  my aids for canter what are my aids for canter  

i have a few canters actually asking for canter is  actually quite complicated if you do it correctly  

so the inside rein so inside depends on  which leg's going to be leading or you want  

to be leading inside rein ask for flexion flexion  literally happens from the poll of the horse it's  

really nothing to do with the neck but you may  want a little bit of neck bend too so my inside  

rein will just check like that on the inside bit  to see that he's nice and soft and he's not going  

to brace through the canter my inside leg sits on  the girth and that is to help with forward motion  

and also if you're on a circle to help with  bend so when we have flexion of the inside  

rein and is nice and soft there we have the  outside rein as well now the outside rein  

only comes into play if the horse tries  to over bend his neck to the inside  

but i also use it to give my horse two half halts  and that's just a squeeze of the rein like that so  

squeeze squeeze on the outside rein and i try and  time it when my outside hind leg hits the ground  

so that i can load that hind leg a little more  because he's going to need to do a big push off of  

that and when he gives a big push up into canter  off of that if it's a little bit loaded that makes  

it a little bit easier for him so the outside rein  is to stop the neck bend two half halts half halt  

half halt then canter the outside leg is to go  back behind the girth and only goes back about ten  

i use that aid when i want to get them to move  their haunches in or out whichever way i want it  

but i take my leg comes sort of out and around  and off and then on for canter the reason you  

really need to know the footfalls of the horse  is that you should try to time that leg going  

on as the outside hind leg is coming through to  step under the horse because only then does he  

have enough time for your message to get from  your leg to his brain to his hind leg to say  

now stop from the two beat trotting motion get  underneath and push off and let's go into canter  

the outside hind leg also stays mine does back  the entire time i'm in canter that allows my horse  

to know that when my leg is there you canter you  don't drop out of canter into trot you canter and  

you stay in canter it also helps push that outside  hind leg under the centre of gravity of the horse  

because when that hind leg is on the ground your  horse has all of his weight and your weight on  

that one hind leg and just if it was out away from  the body he'd be falling over and very unbalanced  

so we try to keep that hind leg in under  the center of gravity of the horse so the  

canter transition soft on the inside yes he  is half halt outside half halt outside canter  

good boy when i said canter  was when i used my outside leg

i want my outside leg

come back to trot good boy  i'm going to try that again

sorry i can't tell everything as they  happen because they all happen so quickly  

that it's a little hard but i'll see i'll tell  you half halt half halt canter and you can just  

know that i'm checking on the inside rein  that is nice and soft to the inside okay

steady good half halt half halt canter good boy

good boy

half halt half halt trot

good try that again i don't  i'll see if i can do my  

leg where you might be able to see my outside leg

half halt half halt canter

so you may have seen me take my  leg back there i hope you can  

and when i said the word canter is when i  pressed it on him and hugged him with my  

inside leg as well because it's both legs when i  want him to canter see if we can do one this way

try again good boy

half halt half halt canter good boy i lent  a little bit into that canter transition if  

you want to go back and watch it and he's a  little on his front end l listen trot whoops  

try that one again just try he's a  little on the forehand this way good boy

good boy we're ready soft to the inside

no so i wouldn't have gone then because if you go  back and watch that he board off and went on to  

his front end would have been an ugly transition  and i don't teach my horse's ugly transitions if  

i can help it try that again nope he's boring  off again here it's tea time he wants his tea  

no we're not walking we're trotting  good boy half halt half halt canter

and trot soft see he's hard on the inside now he's  soft soft hard on the inside hard on the inside  

soft soft canter yes so i really hope  that helps you i just want you to know  

when they're really green and i ask for canter  i'll set them up and give the aids the with that  

lead i want but for the first few times i  don't care if they canter with the wrong lead  

don't ask for too much at once as long as  they canter they get patted and told good  

so i hope you're enjoying this i hope it  brought you some value and thanks for watching