Does anyone have any good counter canter exercises? My horse does flying changes so easily that we are really having a hard time getting the counter canter. I could use some good exercises to help with it.
2009-10-16T15:20:45Z
Captain - You may be right. I can get the counter-canter when we are on a very large circle in the field - say a 30 m diameter. But when we go in the ring, it seems really difficult for him to hold the counter lead. Perhaps I need to do more work out in the field, but it's getting dark earlier and that makes field work harder to get in.
2009-10-16T15:22:29Z
Goood - Yes, he does. It's something that I have been trying to discourage. I haven't really gotten after him harshly about it, though. He's not trying to be bad. He just doesn't understand why I want him to do it the hard way instead of the easy way.
2009-10-17T16:52:19Z
Meagan - Thanks for the articles. The first one gave me a chuckle as I used to take lessons from Mary Rose.
Meagan K [Old Account]2009-10-16T21:47:22Z
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I know that this question is pretty much beyond me, but I found this article and it seems like it would be helpful to you....
This also seemed helpful: http://books.google.com/books?id=9NNobNYAiroC&pg=PA142&lpg=PA142&dq=counter+canter+exercises&source=bl&ots=8IlRymQu3h&sig=tKocwhxaDmn-GLVfzQf90aN5-x4&hl=en&ei=0ErZSoCRDMGV8AbIscW3BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAzgU#v=onepage&q=&f=false
I saw that book for sale in Border's.... it was like 40 bucks... so take advantage of the google book form of it.
I don't know if those help, and I know you could have found those things yourself via google, but I found this interesting so I googled it without intentions of answering. I ended up deciding I would link those on here just in case you didn't find them.
Why are you asking her to "move in?" She's probably breaking because that's unbalancing her. The way I trained counter canter to my horse didn't involve any lateral work within the counter canter (obviously I had to teach him tons of lateral work before hand...). We just went down the long side at the trot, then I asked him to pick up the canter on the opposite lead, so that when we went around the corner he'd be in counter canter. That requires your horse to be really attentive to your aids, rather than just anticipating and picking up the inside lead. An easier way to get into it is just to canter normally on a circle then just cross the diagonal... you said your horse might do lead changes too... that's because you're not keeping your weight to the inside of her bend. if you let your weight shift even a little to the outside, that's a cue for the change. I read in an article that the counter canter is not difficult for the horse, it's only as difficultas the rider makes it. So just keep your weight to the inside of your horse's bend, with your inside seatbone leading a little, but keep her head in the middle, between her shoulders, but with enough inside rein contact so that you can see her inside eye a little. Try doing more lateral work exercises before you keep training the counter canter. This will strengthen your horse's hind end and esp. inside leg, and make her more responsive to your aids. Try switching between shoulder-in, renvers, leg yield, and travers at the walk on a 20 m circle. You can try these at the trot too. Another helpful exercise: shoulder-in down the longside, at E or B, a 10 m circle in shoulder-fore, then after the 10 m., travers down the longside. oh! I just realized- I couldn't understand what you meant by a "loop." You must be talking about a broken line! Now I see that your problem with changes/ trotting really is from you not keeping your weight in the correct place. So, say you're heading down the longside, you've just passed A, and you're going to the left. You're on the left lead canter. Then at F, move toward x, (but only go as far as the quarter line), then once you reach the quarter line, make a shallow turn and head back toward M, staying on the left lead the whole time. So when you're making that turn, she's in the counter canter for only a few strides. It's important to stay straight, except for those few strides in the middle. Don't leg yield anywhere in that exercise! That's incorrect, and why you're having problems. hope that helps...
Most of the time when you can't achieve counter canter with your horse it is because your horse is not exhibiting forward movement and balance. Make sure your horse is driving himself from under him before attempting counter canter, otherwise he won't be able to keep balanced and will switch leads.
If your horse collects himself properly then start by doing large 20 meter circles. The tighter the circle the harder your horse will work to keep balanced. Save the tight circles for when your horse becomes better. You will feel your horse before he goes to change leads. Keep driving him forward and don't give him a chance to half halt and change. It also helps that you do this exercise while doing transitions going from the trot to the counter canter, then back to trot again. It will give your horse less time to think about how he's actually traveling on the wrong lead.
What's really great when you do this is canter down the long side, leg yield to the quarter line and then leg yield back onto the long side before you reach the corner. Do the short side normally and then just repeat leg yielding each long side. This will help build the muscles and etc to get started.
Does your horse do the flying changes without being cued to do so? You may need to untrain the auto-swap if so.