# When will I be ready to canter



## Savannah H (Nov 10, 2020)

I used to ride was I was around 6 and took 1 hour lessons a week until I was about 8 I stopped and I am now getting back into riding I am 14 now I take 1 hour group lessons and 1/2 hour private lessons every week I am trotting and posting and working on diagonals. Any ideas how far away I am from learning to canter ?


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## horseluvr2524 (Sep 17, 2013)

It's entirely dependent on you as the rider, and on your trainer, and also the horse(s) you ride. It's up to your trainer when you are ready. Some people learn very quickly, others take a bit more time. There is no set amount of time in which you will learn it.
Also, being able to stay on at the canter, and truly riding the canter are two different things. For me, I didn't learn to ride the canter until I had several no-stirrup lessons on a lunge line, where the trainer had control of the horse and all I did was work on my seat at the canter. It took me several lessons to finally get it right. Riding the canter feels to me like an ocean wave, whereas the trot is like rhythmic bouncing and the walk is like a gentle sway.


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## animalemi (Nov 5, 2020)

^ that is right in my opinion, another thing I would "worry" about is the trainer. Some trainers will just keep you at trot and MAYBE canter for ever! They keep you at a low level to keep you enrolled and eat your money, but I'm sure you'll be able to notice if that were to be happening. How long have you been doing lessons for now?

Best, 
Emily 🤠


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## txgirl (Jul 9, 2010)

I'd ask your instructor what elements are needed to canter, then ask her where your ability is in regards to cantering. Maybe then y'all can work on a time line/goals in order to canter.


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## Savannah H (Nov 10, 2020)

🥺


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## Savannah H (Nov 10, 2020)

😄


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## Savannah H (Nov 10, 2020)

animalemi said:


> ^ that is right in my opinion, another thing I would "worry" about is the trainer. Some trainers will just keep you at trot and MAYBE canter for ever! They keep you at a low level to keep you enrolled and eat your money, but I'm sure you'll be able to notice if that were to be happening. How long have you been doing lessons for now?
> 
> Best,
> Emily 🤠


I have been doing lessons for around 3 months now


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## Savannah H (Nov 10, 2020)

horseluvr2524 said:


> It's entirely dependent on you as the rider, and on your trainer, and also the horse(s) you ride. It's up to your trainer when you are ready. Some people learn very quickly, others take a bit more time. There is no set amount of time in which you will learn it.
> Also, being able to stay on at the canter, and truly riding the canter are two different things. For me, I didn't learn to ride the canter until I had several no-stirrup lessons on a lunge line, where the trainer had control of the horse and all I did was work on my seat at the canter. It took me several lessons to finally get it right. Riding the canter feels to me like an ocean wave, whereas the trot is like rhythmic bouncing and the walk is like a gentle sway.


Thank you this was very helpful I appreciate it


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## Savannah H (Nov 10, 2020)

txgirl said:


> I'd ask your instructor what elements are needed to canter, then ask her where your ability is in regards to cantering. Maybe then y'all can work on a time line/goals in order to canter.


Thank you this helped a lot


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## animalemi (Nov 5, 2020)

Savannah H said:


> I have been doing lessons for around 3 months now


I would definitely reach out to your trainer and see if you're ready! I catered within my first month, but at the same time everyone's different  
Keep me updated! I'd love to know if you've catered or not 😁


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## Savannah H (Nov 10, 2020)

animalemi said:


> I would definitely reach out to your trainer and see if you're ready! I catered within my first month, but at the same time everyone's different
> Keep me updated! I'd love to know if you've catered or not 😁


Thank you for the information it really helps me to see where I’m at also I have a lesson tomorrow and I’m going to bring it up to my trainer I’ll keep you updated 😄


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## animalemi (Nov 5, 2020)

That's awesome! You should post a video of where you stand too, maybe we can help you and give positive advice!


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## MeditativeRider (Feb 5, 2019)

I did not canter at all until I had been riding for about a year, but then I am a slow learner and was lacking in confidence. Even once I started I did not really learn how to ride it for a while after that. 

There is no rush, everything is a lot faster at canter so all the work you do at trot getting everything else sorted out (turns etc.), will help. But if you are keen and confident, I would ask your coach and see what they think.


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## Savannah H (Nov 10, 2020)

MeditativeRider said:


> I did not canter at all until I had been riding for about a year, but then I am a slow learner and was lacking in confidence. Even once I started I did not really learn how to ride it for a while after that.
> 
> There is no rush, everything is a lot faster at canter so all the work you do at trot getting everything else sorted out (turns etc.), will help. But if you are keen and confident, I would ask your coach and see what they think.


Thank you this makes me feel better I thought that I was just a super slow learner ❤


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## Savannah H (Nov 10, 2020)

animalemi said:


> That's awesome! You should post a video of where you stand too, maybe we can help you and give positive advice!


I will do that thank you


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## animalemi (Nov 5, 2020)

All it is, is practice and patience 
It took me three years to overcome the fear of riding a green horse, it's all about patience when it comes to horses, you never wanna rush right into it.

Best,
Emily 🤠


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## BetterLateThanNever (Jul 7, 2020)

Hello! I understand the desire to canter and "move up" on the hierarchy of skills, but every horse person I respect says that when it comes to all things horses, "go slow to go fast." Meaning...it's okay to really be solid in your seat, balance, turns, and cues in a walk/trot before moving on. My current trainer insists that we must be able to do sitting AND posting trot comfortably without stirrups before she'll even think about having us canter. 

I've only been riding since May and at my first lesson barn, I was told I could canter WAY before I was ready and I nearly fell off. It was not a great experience. I agree with those previous posters who suggest talking to your trainer about how you're doing and what you can do to improve--eventually leading to the canter. Good luck to you!


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## Savannah H (Nov 10, 2020)

animalemi said:


> All it is, is practice and patience
> It took me three years to overcome the fear of riding a green horse, it's all about patience when it comes to horses, you never wanna rush right into it.
> 
> Best,
> Emily 🤠


Thank you I will keep this in mind


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## Savannah H (Nov 10, 2020)

BetterLateThanNever said:


> Hello! I understand the desire to canter and "move up" on the hierarchy of skills, but every horse person I respect says that when it comes to all things horses, "go slow to go fast." Meaning...it's okay to really be solid in your seat, balance, turns, and cues in a walk/trot before moving on. My current trainer insists that we must be able to do sitting AND posting trot comfortably without stirrups before she'll even think about having us canter.
> 
> I've only been riding since May and at my first lesson barn, I was told I could canter WAY before I was ready and I nearly fell off. It was not a great experience. I agree with those previous posters who suggest talking to your trainer about how you're doing and what you can do to improve--eventually leading to the canter. Good luck to you!


Thank you that’s helps me a lot


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## redbadger (Nov 20, 2017)

Savannah H said:


> Thank you this makes me feel better I thought that I was just a super slow learner ❤


Believe me, you are not. It took me two years to canter, and that was when the horse decided I was ready! All things come in time: the more secure and confident you are at walk and trot, the more secure and confident you will eventually be at canter. I agree with other posters - talk to your instructor about what your goals are and what you need to do to get there. My instructor for example (under ordinary circumstances) doesn't teach canter until her student can ride a pattern at the trot, without stirrups, without making a mistake.


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

BetterLateThanNever said:


> My current trainer insists that we must be able to do sitting AND posting trot comfortably without stirrups before she'll even think about having us canter.





redbadger said:


> My instructor for example (under ordinary circumstances) doesn't teach canter until her student can ride a pattern at the trot, without stirrups, without making a mistake.


Uh-oh. My sitting trot sucks and I never post without stirrups (assuming I post at all). Mostly prefer two-point in a trot if only because it reduces the peak impact pressure on a horse's back by 20%). I've seen no sign trotting and cantering have anything to do with each other. Trotting is an up/down motion primarily, while cantering is a rolling/rocking motion. An instructor I knew REQUIRED all students, on their first ride with her, to canter in a round pen on a horse the instructor knew well. Her thought was that a horse might take off at any time and a student ought to know it isn't a big deal BEFORE it happens.

We've had a couple of folks go trail riding with us who hadn't ridden before, only to have the horse decide to speed up to catch the others. In both cases, the person LOVED it and wanted to do it again.

My horse Bandit has a fun rolling canter. His medium or faster trot is best ridden in the stirrups and out of the saddle. I strongly agree with the instructor who believed in teaching it the first lesson. It takes the mystery out of it and you realize it isn't hard to ride - unless you try to ride it like a trot, in which case you will likely fail.

PS: This picture shows what I mean by a rocking motion versus the level back rising up and down at a trot:








​PSS: Thought I'd make it clear. I'd as soon be emasculated as ride Bandit at a trot without stirrups. In fact, trotting with him without stirrups probably WOULD emasculate me! And our BLM mustang pony Cowboy? His trot will make you pee blood, but you could roll a smoke on his back at a canter.


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## MeditativeRider (Feb 5, 2019)

bsms said:


> Uh-oh. My sitting trot sucks and I never post without stirrups (assuming I post at all). Mostly prefer two-point in a trot if only because it reduces the peak impact pressure on a horse's back by 20%). I've seen no sign trotting and cantering have anything to do with each other. Trotting is an up/down motion primarily, while cantering is a rolling/rocking motion. An instructor I knew REQUIRED all students, on their first ride with her, to canter in a round pen on a horse the instructor knew well. Her thought was that a horse might take off at any time and a student ought to know it isn't a big deal BEFORE it happens.
> 
> We've had a couple of folks go trail riding with us who hadn't ridden before, only to have the horse decide to speed up to catch the others. In both cases, the person LOVED it and wanted to do it again.


My take on it would be that it is more what getting solid at trot teaches you in terms of general balance, strength, what muscles to use, use of the different aids, turns, half halts etc. than the following the motion. Obviously the trot motion is different to the canter motion. I imagine all instructors just have a different set of criteria that they use to judge if someone is ready to learn to canter (not actually just stay on and not fall off) but learn to actually ride it. It is easier to judge when someone is ready if you have some sort of criteria rather than none. So on the surface the "X type of trot at..." may seem arbitrary, but it is probably not to the instructor.

I am not sure what my instructor's criteria are for learning to canter but I know when I first started—after 15 lessons elsewhere where they did try to get me to canter by chasing the horse with a lunge whip—she said "you are so not ready to canter" after watching me ride for a 1 h lesson. After a year I was ready to start learning. I can't say I can post the trot well without stirrups (its more of a sit, sit, sit, almost post, sit sit sit, etc.), I can sit the trot stirrup-less. So I could fail someone else's "can you canter" criteria, but I know one thing was with the horse I was riding, I had to show that I could consistently stop him falling in on the corners at the trot because that would only get worse at canter.

As to being put into canter on the first ride in a round pen so you can see what it feels like. I am not sure I agree with that. First of all, what sort of canter is that going to be for both the horse and the rider. The horse is probably going to get pulled in the mouth and the rider is probably going to get an unbalanced canter. Most lesson horses are not going to pop into canter readily with a new rider because they can tell they are a new rider. I don't really think you can compare it with needing to know how to canter for horses catching up on a trail ride because a horse is a lot less likely to pop into canter in a lesson than on a trail ride, particularly if it is a private lesson, which with a newbie rider I hope it would be. If the coach insisted on doing that I would rather they had me as a rider on the lunge with no reins and a strap to hold onto so I could pull myself down and into the saddle.


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

MeditativeRider said:


> I had to show that I could consistently stop him falling in on the corners at the trot because that would only get worse at canter....First of all, what sort of canter is that going to be for both the horse and the rider. The horse is probably going to get pulled in the mouth and the rider is probably going to get an unbalanced canter.


First, "falling in on the corners" has little to do with cantering or good riding. Horses tend to lean into the turn and round corners for the same reason humans would: It is a more efficient way of turning. Riders should learn to ride it and to a certain extent ACCEPT it as a functionally BETTER way of turning. If anything, learning to ride a horse who "falls in" would be better for learning balance AND control that learning ways of making a corner easier on the human's balance.

Nor does one need to do laps in an arena to learn to canter. A canter is easiest to learn going straight. And horses are more willing to canter in a straight line and then slow than they are to do endless circles at a canter. So let the student learn both the canter motion AND the transitions in a straight line before doing circles - which are a bit weird anyways because why would anyone WANT to canter in circles? What is the point of increasing speed if one isn't going anywhere? Perhaps lesson horses wouldn't become bitter if the instruction included learning to think like a horse: practically, as in the old phrase "horse sense"!

There is a valuable moment in learning when your horse stops, turns its head back, and looks at you while clearly saying, "_I've done this circle 3 times and we aren't going anywhere. What is your problem? Are you lost?_"

The entire concept of "falling in on the corners" is a pet peeve of mine. It shows the instructor doesn't understand how horses move and turn, which in turn makes me wonder why the person is "instructing" at all.

Second, the instructor I knew used a horse she knew well for the rider's first canters. The horse was controlled by her voice, not the rider. Reins were not needed. Her point was not to teach fine riding, but staying on and even ENJOYING the motion. To "just stay on and not fall off" is a survival skill and the basis of all riding. After all, once one falls off, one is no longer riding at all! Keeping the horse between you and the ground is a riding fundamental. Maybe people would fall less if it was taught, and instructors wouldn't make excuses for THEIR poor teaching by claiming, "You need to fall off XX times to become a rider"!

Once one understand that cantering is FUN, and that it is EASY to ride, the fear of cantering goes away. People canter far better when they are having fun than when they are tense and nervous. So it is a two-fer: Helps to prevent falls and makes teaching a good canter easier. 

Third, posting without stirrups is a stupid exercise. About all it teaches is to grip with the knee and that is counterproductive to good riding. It does nothing to help the horse because the entire point of getting out of the saddle is to allow the LEGS to absorb shock instead of the horse's back and that requires the knee to flex.

Finally, any instructor who needs a year to teach someone to canter should be fired. They are soaking the student for cash instead of actually teaching the student. The first level of instruction shouldn't take more than a few months and include getting the student comfortable with staying on and staying happy at all gaits, transitioning between gaits and how to work with a horse - mentally as well as physically. If the student then wants to learn some form of show riding...well, let them. AFTER they know the basics. If they then want to learn how to ASK the horse to square corners and move awkwardly while turning to make things easier on the rider, so be it. But let the student learn the basics first!

Too many instructors get job security, not out of teaching well, but by teaching poorly, inefficient and slowly.


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

One other point on cantering, from 2012:



maura said:


> Riding the canter correctly and well in a full seat is difficult, and many more riders do it badly than do it well. As Allison stated above, it requires a degree of abdominal fitness, as well as correct position, relaxation and a good understanding of gait mechanics and how the horse's back moves. That's out of reach for a lot of recreational riders. I would much rather see an elementary or intermediate rider cantering in half seat, allowing the horse to move freely, than someone attempting and failing a full following seat and punishing the horse's back in the process.
> 
> There is nothing inherently insecure about riding the canter in half-seat or two point as long as the rider is in balance.


Riding the canter in half seat

8 years later, I actually disagree with maura. I think the big problem with teaching cantering in a full seat is how it is typically taught. But I also think it is easy to teach cantering in a half-seat. It is easy to ride that way and students ought to learn it early on. VS Littauer taught thousands of students between 1930 and 1970. He taught cantering on lesson #6 unless the student had some huge problem that prevented it. He wrote: "_I know of so-called riding schools where learning position is a never ending process which can be terminated only either by the pupil's changing his interest or by the considerations of his pocketbook. I know of others where position is taught in fifty to sixty riding hours._" Based on his experience, he believed 75% of students could be taught to jump 2.5 feet in 20 lessons.

Not sure many instructors could do that, but the idea that it takes a year or two to teach someone to canter is pretty crazy. It reflects bad instruction, not the actual difficulty involved.


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## MeditativeRider (Feb 5, 2019)

bsms said:


> First, "falling in on the corners" has little to do with cantering or good riding. Horses tend to lean into the turn and round corners for the same reason humans would: It is a more efficient way of turning. Riders should learn to ride it and to a certain extent ACCEPT it as a functionally BETTER way of turning. If anything, learning to ride a horse who "falls in" would be better for learning balance AND control that learning ways of making a corner easier on the human's balance.
> 
> Nor does one need to do laps in an arena to learn to canter. A canter is easiest to learn going straight. And horses are more willing to canter in a straight line and then slow than they are to do endless circles at a canter. So let the student learn both the canter motion AND the transitions in a straight line before doing circles - which are a bit weird anyways because why would anyone WANT to canter in circles? What is the point of increasing speed if one isn't going anywhere? Perhaps lesson horses wouldn't become bitter if the instruction included learning to think like a horse: practically, as in the old phrase "horse sense"!
> 
> ...


Ok, language differences, by "falling in" I mean seriously cutting corners so that your straight side would become significantly shorter. So yes, I was cantering on the long straight side, but the long straight side would become a short straight side unless I learned to stop that "falling in"/cutting corners effectively first. Sorry if my word choices are different to yours, I am not from the US.

You have made a lot of huge assumptions in your post when you have no idea of my background, how I ride, or my instructor. My instructor is amazing and taught me very effectively and exactly at the rate I needed and in a way I needed. She charges barely anything and is an excellent teacher. I was an anxious returner rider with a lot of fear and asked her to take it slow with me and only do cantering when I was solid. Not because I had a fear of cantering but because my brain works differently to others and I cannot process X, Y, and Z other things at speed if I don't know them by heart first. For example, I would have a block as to how to turn or how to go down a gait if my brain was occupied with a "new thing" (e.g., canter) and I had not learned the other skills over and over and over again until they were second nature. Maybe you cannot imagine what that may be like but it is extremely anxiety inducing to live with for all daily tasks (e.g., talking to new people, filling my car with gas at a different station), let alone on top of a horse. That my instructor has been able to teach me in a way that I am not only comfortable but confident and happy at all gaits in a year, yes a whole blooming year, is nothing short of amazing. I thought it would take years longer and I was happy for it to take much longer because I felt safe in her choices.

You assume my instructor makes me go in circles. She never has me do anything in repetitive circles. In fact she is constantly reminding me multiple times per lesson to change up my gait, path, direction, etc more because I am a creature of routine and get very one-sighted and fixated on one part of a task and forget to change up other things.

I have never even come close to falling off in my current instructors lessons (2.5–3 years of them) but did fall off at the lesson place where they tried to force me into canter early (on lesson 4). That did the complete reverse of making me "feel comfortable and stay happy at all the gaits".

You obviously have very set opinions that you like to get lengthy on, so I am not going to engage anymore, but I just wanted the original poster to see that your opinion is not necessarily correct for every situation.


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