horse not happy cantering? tail movement?

Okay, yes a tail swishing is a sign of winding up... to do something naughty.

What you're descriding is nothing to be concerned with. If it is just with the transition, the horse is simply balancing itself through the transition.

If your horse is swishing its tail THROUGH canter, then put him on the lunge and see what he does when you ask for canter. Is inside back leg should be the first leg put into canter, he may be sore and it having difficulty figuring out how to do it without hurting himself.

If this is the case, get a chiro to check him out.

Good Luck

It is true that when a horse swishes their tail, it CAN mean that they are upset about something. However, it does not ALWAYS mean they are upset. Remember that the tail is part of the spine. If the spine is moving, then the tail is moving. If you watch upper level dressage horses, they often are moving their tails a lot, but they are not expressing unhappiness, they are just so mobile in their spines that their tails naturally move. So, the horse may have swished his tail just with the effort of making the transition.

If you see tail swishing with general tension, a sour expression, or head tossing, I would say that it is a sign of some unhappiness which may be pain, laziness, or resistance. You don't say if these were also present. I'd say go back and look at your video to see if any of these other things were present. If they were and you still think the horse was unhappy, then you need to determine the source in order to solve the problem. The horse might have some discomfort from the tack, your aids might have been sudden or too strong, or the horse just may not have felt like cantering.

Horses also swish their tail as a result of stress. This is not always a bad thing. It takes a lot of physical effort to remain balanced and in a frame between gaits, so many horses will swish their tails during transitions. Many dressage horses at the highest levels swish their tails between complicated movements. This doesn't necessarily mean they're unhappy, it just means they're working very hard and they need some small outlet.

That being said, not all tail swishing is benign. During your transition, did you grab your horse in the mouth? Did your leg slip back? Did you kick him needlessly? If our horses are irritated, it's usually a result of something we're doing. The canter transition should be light and easy, but it's a common fault to lean forward and grab the horse's mouth at the onset. This puts more weight on the horse's shoulder and makes their job harder. At the transition, remain tall and upright. You shouldn't need any more feel than the contact you used at the trot.

You are correct -a quiet tail is a happy tail. A tail wringing can be the sign of pain, anxiousness, unhappiness for many reasons.

The saddle and tack fit can be causing slight discomfort that is only evident to the horse at the canter or gallop. When a rider controls their body well at the walk or trot perhaps the saddle and tack don't bother the horse, but when the rider loses a bit of finesse at the canter, and perhaps their weight bounces more with the larger movements, slight discomforts become evident to the horse.

Another thing could be the horse's happiness at what it is being asked to do and how. Perhaps if you're asking it to do something it doesn't like to do, the tail swishing is simple annoyance. If you're asking a horse to do something boring that they already do well, they aren't having fun so aren't focused on the task at hand allowing them the mental "room" to swish their tail. So if you're doing something over and over in the arena that the horse feels they do well enough already or you aren't properly stopping and releasing to reward good improvements, the horse isn't learning and life isn't fun. It's akin to asking you to sit and do math problems over and over - if you get a problem right once, why would you need to do similar ones over and over? If someone gave you a math problem, you did it, then they handed you a whole page full of similar ones, life wouldn't be as fun while you're sitting at that desk as if the person handed you a problem, then praised you when you did it well, then handed you a different one, praising you when you did that well and so on moving to things that were the right difficulty for your abilities to grow those abilities. It's the same with a horse - if they do something well and you praise them and give them time for rest and reward, they will happily go to the next thing, but if you simply drill them over and over it's not fun - and this simple thing could be the thing that makes them right their tails.

Now, if the horse simply swishes now and again, could it be flies? They will not hold their tails completely still - they'll use if for balance and flies and all that - but if they are angrily switching it or wringing it, there's something wrong.

So look at what you're doing, how you're doing it and determine, from the horse's perspective whether he is likely having fun or not. Keep in mind what's fun to you isn't necessarily fun for him. Work for a horse is anything other than standing relaxedly doing what he wants - his goal will be to achieve that relaxation - and if you're using it as a reward, he'll do his work looking for that reward.

Good luck

Tail swishing usually means the horse is resisting the instruction. If the horse moved into the canter without hesitation, then he's just be a little snippy. If he -fell- or stumbled into the canter, then it means he's unbalanced and needs schooling to strengthen his back and muscles and learn to balance himself during the transition.

If the swishing continues the whole time he's cantering, then look towards either a badly fitting saddle, a stiff back or joints.

A 'wringing' tail is the sign of an unhappy or 'soured' horse. It might be in pain or it could be that it's very tired of what you're asking it to do. The next thing to do would be to look at yourself in the video. Better yet, have an impartial, objective person review the video and focus on your technique.

It relies upon at this style of swishing, theres indignant swishing, pissed off swishing, concentrating swishing, impatient swishing, and so on. do you spot the place im going right here? you cant tell the temper of the pony by making use of basically their tail. you're able to desire to look on the full photograph; what are their ears doing, what are their eyes asserting, whats their physique language. in my view i think of those dressage horses are on lots meds and supplements that they probable cant experience something. Ive heard that some tail swishing, tremendously going from the trot to the canter, is led to by making use of the tummy acid in the horses abdomen splashing up the tummy lining and it burns. the way a horses abdomen works, that's meant to have nutrients basically approximately constantly coming in. in view that alot of folk in basic terms feed 2 cases an afternoon, their horses arent ingesting each and every of the ime like they could clearly, inflicting a boost of abdomen acid that flops around while their abdomen is empty, thats basically my concept.

if he doesn't do while your in the gait- only in the transition- he might be nervouse about going into the new gait, consider giving the horse the instruction more clearly OR if u r already doing that give him a pat after the transition and say good job! and give him a pat- that way he knows he did the right thing and will soon go into the transition more calmly! hope it helps! ;)

If he only did it during the transition maybe he was nervous about going from trot to canter. Did he do anything else to indicate he was upset about it? Doesn't sound like a serious problem to me.

I could be back pain, flies, lameness. they swish their tails when they are uncomfortable. if it was only during the transition i don't think it is a problem, it was probably flies or insects annoying him.