heellppp! im back into cantering again!

[molz]

hiyyaa!
when i ride my pony she has a habbit of just stopping for no reason. if i kick her through it she will just buck or wiz backwards around the school! due to this i havnt cantered in a while and shes getting better so im thinking of attempting another canter soon. but in the past, she just trots faster so i steady her down, ask again and she bucks! its like she tells me she doesnt want to do something and if a keep pressing her she will buck with her head up in the air! have you got any suggestions for the napping or the bucking? thanks

[jennyb]

I think your horse is trying to tell you something! Have you had the usual checks done - back, saddle, teeth? Have you had your riding assessed by an instructor? Have you had the vet to check her?

Horses don't do things "for no reason" - you just need to find out why she is unwilling to work. There WILL be a reason.

[ruby]

I'm going to agree with Jenny, get your saddle checked and checked again. I had similar canter-buck issues several years ago, saddle checked, given the ok, told to ride through it and although I learned to sit a rodeo horse I knew it wasn't right. It took 3 saddlers before the third said it was nowhere near wide enough. One new saddle later and the bucking reduced by 80% immediately, the rest was learned behaviour that disappeared in a few weeks. You are right that your horse is trying to tell you something

[molz]

shes been fully checkd over twice by the vet and had her teeth and a saddle fitter out so there is no pain. she does the first 20 mins fine and then she just gets bored and cant be bothered to do anymore work! she always naps when she gets too far away from the gate, because she wants to turn round and go out, she just has no enthusiasm foor work :/
thank you for your replies thought! x

[Azrael]

Are you sure she understands the aids for canter? If it is just opinions then reversing them where you want to go until they're begging to go forwards is a good way to deal with bogging off in reverse. Before trying for canter make sure you've got good obedient transitions stand to walk and walk to trot before going for the trot to canter transition that she's more difficult about. If the bucks are sittable keep asking her to go forwards when she bucks, could be that she's learnt bucking gives her an opportunity to get slowed down or stopped.

[june]

I did a lot of work on canter on the lunge with one of my horses who wasn't keen to canter. Having done that I found that asking for canter when ridden was easy. The trouble with horses that aren't keen to canter under saddle is that your aids tend to get quite big because you assume they won't canter and the bigger aids have the effect of blocking the canter.

It would also be worth asking for canter on a hack instead of in the arena. A lot of horses find the corners of an arena quite tricky so find it easier to establish canter in long straight lines outdoors.

Horses really don't get up in the morning wondering what they can do that day to upset their owners so the horse isn't being "naughty" for no reason. There is a reason she doesn't want to canter. You just have to find it. Only you can change the situation. The horse won't be able to change it without your help.

[molz]

thank you very much for your replies! i will deffonatly try to canter my fiirst time on the lunge
she is getting better than she was nowbut still has her little querks ahaa! bless herr x