Hello everyone,
This month I am going to talk about canter leads and departures.
We talked about the canter foot falls a few months ago. Knowing the canter foot falls is going to help us here in getting better canter departs and the correct lead. So to just recap, the canter is 3 beats. The right lead goes like this: it starts with the left hind, then the right hind and left front move at the same time, then the right front hits the ground as the last beat, then all four feet are off the ground in a moment of suspension and it starts all over again. For the left lead, it starts with the right hind, then the left hind and right front, and the final beat is the left front.
So in a circle to the left you want to be in a left lead and in a circle to the right you want to be in a right lead. Unless you are working on your counter canter but that is for another article. We talked about how to feel and see them a few articles ago so I am not going to go over it again here.
Now I am going to talk about how to cue a horse to go into a canter getting the correct lead.
Lets start with the right lead. If I want my horse to give me the right lead I am going to cue the left hind to pick up a right lead. Remember that the Left hind starts the right lead. So I am going to put my weight on my left hip, put steady pressure on with my left leg, open up my right shoulder and right leg, and then I get the right lead.
For the Left lead: Put your weight on the right hip, steady pressure with the right leg, and open up the left shoulder and leg.
Now how does knowing the foot falls help us in this task? Well, knowing that the horse’s left hind starts the right lead we can ask the left hind to give us the right lead and vise versa. Also when the horse is in a right lead that right shoulder needs to lift up and move forward more than the other shoulder. So in knowing that, we put our weight in the left hip in a right lead and get our weight off that inside shoulder so that the horse can better lift it up and give us that lead. Makes sense right!!
Also if we know the foot falls we can get things like drop to trot lead changes and flying lead changes. But that is for another article also, right now we are just talking about getting the correct lead from a trot.
So the position that your horse should be in for a right lead is, the hip should be in to the right, the ribs should be bent right and the head should be looking slightly right. That is the correct position. But let’s say that your horse is what they call “dead leaded”. That means that he/she only wants to pick up one lead. So to get the hard lead here is where I start to get it: While trotting down the rail going to the right (that means that your right hand is on the inside of the arena) when I want to ask for the canter and I know that the right lead is the hard lead, I am going to kind of slightly pull my horses head to the outside of the arena, so that would be left, what this does is it puts your horse’s hip in the correct position to pick up the right lead. Once your horse is in the right lead going right let go of the rein and just ride the canter until your horse wants to stop. Let him stop, pet him and rest for a moment to let him know that the right lead was the correct answer and then try it again. If you do not get the right lead bring him back to the trot and try again until you get the correct lead.
If you are still having trouble you can add a little circle. So, if I am on the rail going to the right asking for a right lead, I can bend my horse into about a 30′ circle in a trot. In the circle I can ask for the canter and get the right lead and then let my horse come out of the small circle as we are cantering in the correct lead in the correct direction. You want to ask for the canter when you are on the back side of your small circle. Meaning that when you are a little ways past parallel to the fence and starting to head back to the rail is when you need to ask. So when you are going around the rail and then you add your circle, you will end up going the same way you were going before.
Doing this with consistency your horse will start to understand and your leads and lead changes will become easy!
Doing the correct leads are important for your horse’s legs and muscles for a happy, sound horse for his whole life!
Have an experienced horse friend, one that can see the canter leads right away, help you at first so that you know for sure you are getting the correct leads.
Thanks, and as I said before we will be getting into gaited horses!
If you have any questions on this subject or any others please feel free to email me at: chelsie@chelsienaturalhorsemanship.com
Chelsie Kallestad
www.chelsienaturalhorsemanship.com
928-713-3468
