Exercises To Collect Your Horse 3

Most horses should have a good walk and canter when chosen as a riding horse. A trot can be improved, whereas the canter and walk are hard to change. If your horse has a terrible canter but a beautiful trot, it can make it hard for you to collect and school your horse. Most Thoroughbreds have a lovely elevated canter with nice hock action but have been trained to race so therefore lean on the rider's hand. Some warmbloods and heavy draft horses find cantering hard and lean on the hand to keep their balance. Canter exercises are hard work but will help your horse to get off your hand and learn to re-balance himself.

Do not canter your horses for long periods to start with, as they tire quickly in a canter and learn to lean on you for balance. Cantering for 20 minutes on a long rein in the arena is a good way to get your horse fit, but hardly any horse has enough balance or strength to maintain a relaxed speed for this amount of time.

Start off in a walk on a relaxed rein and ride an eight using the entire arena. X will be your crossing point. Then bend your horse's head and neck to the inside every four or so steps on the count of the inside hind leg. Make sure your hand doesn't pull back or down and you don't look down on the arena but keep your head up. When crossing X, straighten your horse for two or three metres and then gently ask a change in bend. Do not overthrow your horse by suddenly asking him to bend the other way!

When you feel like your horse is bending sufficiently, progress to the next exercise. Make a 10 metre circle in every corner and at markers B and E. Do six on one rein before changing reins to do 6 on the other. Don't be tempted to do more on one side then the other although your horse might feel crooked. It is important to be even. Half halt before turning into a circle and ask your horse to trot. Your horse should be relaxed and rhythmic in a walk before starting this exercise. If that is the case, your horse should readily maintain some contact and swing into the trot with impulsion. Trot him around the circle and walk him when you reach the circle start point. Prepare your horse to walk with a series of half halts and make sure your horse doesn't "dribble" into a walk but changes gaits instantaneously and maintains a forward walk between circles. Repeat the exercise on either rein and pay attention to the correctness of the exercise and transitions. If you've done it right, your horse should readily jump into a trot and transition to a walk just as quickly. The circle should be round and your horse should maintain a bend throughout the entire circle. Make sure you straighten your horse in the walk between the circles.

If the above exercise worked well and you feel content with what you achieved, progress to trotting your horse in the circle and asking him to canter when you reach the outside of the arena. Only canter him for two or three paces and slow back to a trot, then walk and go into your next circle. Repeat this six times on either rein and ensure regularity of paces, relaxation and rhythm. This exercise is quite hard especially for unbalanced and younger horses. Don't do this exercise with a horse under the age of four and a half years as they're hardly capable of maintaining the right body tension throughout the exercises. If your horse tenses up throughout the exercise, take a step back and restart with exercise 2. Don't force your horse to do the exercises if he's not relaxed and rhythmic. A certain body tension will be noticeable, but this is the aim of the exercise.

   For more advanced horses and riders, leave out the trot and do walk/canter and canter/walk transitions until your horse moves forward well and propels himself off his hind legs. If your horse gets too tense, repeat stage 2 until relaxation is achieved.

End your session by loosening your rein and letting your horse trot out forward, long and low around the arena. Either rise to the trot or maintain a comfortable 3-point-position, which will take your weight off your horse's back and encourage him to swing in his back.

Repeat these exercises until you feel that your horse can maintain two or three strides with his haunches underneath him and slowly lengthen the number of strides until you canter a whole circle or two. This will help your horse re-think how he canters and will teach him a new balance, it will also strengthen him so you can progress to longer canter exercises after a few weeks.

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