Gaited Horses Cantering

Last saturday i went with a friend to look at a posible first hrose for her. She is in her 40's and she was raised in Arizona where the mexican Cowboys taught her how to ride. She now lives in Connecticut where she rides at a dressage barn. She wants to get a Tennessee Walking Horse for a pleasure hrose but also to do dresage for gaited horse. So the horse was located in New York and was beautiful his only problem was his owner did not know what the runnign walk was so she let him do whatever. And in order to make him do a running walk she would push him into a canter then pull him back. Right when i got on this horse right when i asked it to do a running walk it went into the canter. So todays training tip is how to gait the broken gaited horse.

i will give you a few scenarios, the first you have already heard so i will explain my advice on how to fix this.

First i find a hill or a sloop it dosn't have to be insanly steep or almost flat. I worked this horse on a 20ft hill with about a 45 degree angle. So i turned him towards the hill and asked him to do a runnign walk, he enters a canter and i pull him back. But while going up the hill i start half- halting him to round him around.( half- halt is holding with one rein and giving and taking with the other.) once we reached the crest i could feel the horse tense up and put pressure against the bit to try and canter, but becasue he was tucked under and rounded ahout he coudn't canter. i have noticed with my own horses that this can take a very long time to learn( a few days of riding) but liek the hrose i rode it can also only take a few minutes to catch on. I was able to get the horse to do a beautiful running walk and allowed my frined to gait him more eaisly without having to deal with his canter issue. So my tip for this issue is to work your horse on a hill and really try to get the horse rounded. A hollow backed horse is more likley to pace than do its gaits.

My next scenario is a horse that gaits with its head up( Icelandics, some TWH's and MFT's) these horses are able to do a smooth gait while having its head up. one thing about these horses is that they have to have tremendous back muscle strength. THe reason behind this is becasue even though gaited hroses are smooth they still have shock absorbtion going through there back and a hollow back acts like a giant spring and everyone knows that after a while the spring has to be replaced. Many old retired swaybacked hroses are like they are because of improper riding style. Now granted some people will say i am worng here becasue i know in some breeds it is prefered. But the on the trail it is jsut silly. So to help heave a smother gait with high headed horses i suggest that yo uwork on pressure cues. One thing ive seen with high headed horses is that they are not always that responsive an tend to fight the bit. For this when they do there runnign walk, fox trot, tolt.... lean back and lower your reins even down past your hips if neccassary this will encourguge the hrose to concentrate on its feet rather than its mouth. I have not always tryed to lower a horse that has a high head set because they can sometimes pace while rounded jsut becasue there not use to it.

hope this helps!

August looks to be a great month for riding so enjoy it!