Hi Ho Silver, Away!....

Most gaited horses seem to have wonderful, easy to ride, canters that are a joy to experience. However, teaching a gaited horse to canter on demand can be difficult because some horses are hard-wired to only pace. Since the canter has similarities to the pace, a pacy horse just keeps on pacing faster and faster which makes them very challenging.

I remember one of my early experiences trying to get a gelding called Silver to canter. He was typical of many gaited horses because he could do numerous gaits and if he chose to he could quickly change his gait from one thing to another. Being a loose traveling horse made him smooth to ride, but it also made it more demanding on him to stay collected. In the beginning of the canter work it was very hard for me to keep Silver collected and bunched for more than a couple of strides before he would lengthen his body and begin to pace. For that reason, I was always losing his canter. In my opinion, it seems to be easier for the tighter muscled horses to canter than the loose ones.

I am always searching for things that will make it easier for the horse to understand what I want with less stress to achieve what I’m after. I had access to a county dirt road that had soft footing along each side and was perfect to travel on. Two miles down the road there was a really nice incline of about 45 degrees up a long hill. I decided to see if the incline would help Silver stay more collected. I didn’t care which lead he took, I just wanted him to canter as far as he could. I was interested in giving him the idea that I wanted a canter. Later on I could be more specific about him picking one lead or the other. If this worked, I also intended to develop his muscle memory for the canter so in the future it would become natural for him to repeat. I was pleased with the results we achieved that first time.

Silver and I traveled on that county road plenty of times while he was in training. I would warm him up in his other gaits on the way to the hill and then we would work on the canter when we arrived there. Eventually he was able to canter to the top of the hill. I would turn him around and let him walk back down to the bottom so he could catch his breath before I would ask him to canter up the side of the road again. Because of the incline it naturally forced Silver to collect and stay bunched without me doing much besides holding his nose close to the vertical and encouraging him to maintain a certain speed. He had to keep driving forward with his hindquarters which automatically forced him to stay bunched as opposed to level ground where it was much easier for him to loose his collection. Over time the canter got more comfortable for him and eventually he was able to do it on soft level ground for me. Silver and I never had to chase any outlaws like Hop-a-long did but we could have.

Since my experience with Silver, when someone asks me how to get their gaited horse to canter, I tell them to try cantering up a hill. It is always my first choice whenever I have access to a hill. I tell riders if their horse can’t canter up an easy hill find a steeper incline until they find the best grade that will encourage their horse to canter.