# How to ride a crossfire canter



## 3rdTimestheCharm (Jan 18, 2015)

If she is crossfiring, then there is most likely a problem with her hind end. My gelding used to crossfire, so I got a good chiro out. She said that his hip was out of alignment. Now, he's doing much better!

I would really recommend getting a chiro out to look at your mare. Crossfiring is not normal.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

At 31 she's quite an old horse and could have some significant wear and tear on her joints that's causing her to cross fire - you should really get her checked out before you try anything to correct it by way of riding
Horses that pull and get tense and braced can often cross fire but I think that's less likely to be her problem?


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## boots (Jan 16, 2012)

But, how to ride it?

Kind of sideways, is how it feels to me. I got one in that had this habit. It had also never learned, or been able, to rate it's canter. It took several rides of him going off (very willingly) into the crossfiring and I would have to work at getting him to slow down gently, before I could get him to take one or the other lead.

He had received a pretty significant injury to his right hip muscle as a two year old. He did improve and become a good usable mount.


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## Smilie (Oct 4, 2010)

Maybe retire the horse. At age 31, I would suspect that there is pain issue, causing her to cross fire, rather then a bad habit that was never corrected through training


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## Jan1975 (Sep 7, 2015)

I don't think you SHOULD learn to ride it, as it can't be comfortable for the horse to canter like that. If you can't get her to canter normally, it's probably due to pain, like others said, and I'd stick to trotting!


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## beau159 (Oct 4, 2010)

I agree that an aged horse who crossfires is probably doing so because of PAIN. If you want to continues riding the horse, I would suggest getting a complete lameness eval with a vet and a visit to the chiro. 

Sounds like the horse is trying to compensate to for something. Cross firing is not normal.


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## Wallaby (Jul 13, 2008)

I am on a similar page as the other posters - at her age, if she's crossfiring consistently, it may be time to fully retire her or avoid cantering her [walk/trot only]. Her body is saying that she can no longer canter properly and that cantering correctly is probably, at this point in her life, painful for her.


My gelding has a muscle disorder and a symptom is that he has always crossfired for the entire time I've known him [including before I knew about his disorder]. 
Once I learned about his disorder, starting treating it, and began accommodating it in my expectations, I was able to train him to canter properly by cuing him to change when he started crossfiring and only doing short canters as he built up muscle to hold a proper gait. 
He still occasionally crossfires, but he recognizes that and generally fixes himself - he pretty predictably begins to crossfire when he gallops however. Just recently, yesterday in fact, he was able to gallop on the correct lead and I am still over the moon. That means that his muscle memory is really picking up and he's developing "stuff."

Anyway, my gelding will likely never be comfortable undersaddle, so we essentially just do liberty work at this point [most of the horses with his "thing" are 100% retired, so even liberty work is huge!]. Training him to canter properly is just an effort to help him find his best self.



Anyway, my feelings on this are that, in a nutshell, she's saying that either cantering hurts, or she doesn't have the muscle to canter properly [or both]. At 31, any age-related pain isn't going to lessen with time and she's likely not going to be able to comfortably and/or easily build sufficient muscle to canter properly.

My first horse was an older Arabian mare [she passed away at 29] and it's so hard when their minds are so ready but their bodies say no!! 
I ended up trail riding my mare for the last 3ish years of her life and we had one hill she loved to gallop up, so I'd give her the "ok" when we got there and she'd choose how fast we went up that hill. 
Those rides were less about me developing as a rider [though, I feel like any time in the saddle is time spent developing as a rider...] and more about enjoying time together. And enjoy our time is what we did!


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## ApuetsoT (Aug 22, 2014)

I'd just stop cantering. At her age her hocks are probably pretty gnarly and likely contributing. She may not have the muscle mass anymore to hold the correct lead either. Continue to ride her if everything else is working fine, it'll keep her fit, but at 31 she has no reason to be cantering.


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## XeniaSprings (Jul 2, 2016)

I have had a few people look at her. And they all say she is fine. The vet says she is healthier than most 12yr olds. She canters on her on all the time. And when I ride her I have to fight with her to keep her from cantering. It's her favorite thing to do and she don't act like she has trouble with it. And from everything I have heard seen and read crossfiring is natural for her breed. From what I can tell she has never been trained to not crossfire.


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## DraftyAiresMum (Jun 1, 2011)

XeniaSprings said:


> And from everything I have heard seen and read crossfiring is natural for her breed.


:confused_color:

I've dealt with a lot of Arabs, including one who has neurological damage from an accident and basically had to relearn how to walk, trot, and canter from scratch. I have NEVER seen an Arab crossfire. :shrug:


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## natisha (Jan 11, 2011)

Does your horse do in in both leads or only a certain one? If only one I just wouldn't ask for that one. If both, which is rare, I would try to determine why & if that didn't show anything I would try Previcox or some other anti-inflammatory pain reliever. If that didn't work & she still cantered like that & I was sure it was a mechanical issue not caused by pain, then I would occasionally let her canter but I'd be in 2 point.


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## 3rdTimestheCharm (Jan 18, 2015)

I have been around quite a few Arabs, and the only one I've ever seen crossfire was my gelding before I got the chiro out to look at him. Now he does not crossfire. As far as I know, it's not normal for any breed.

Also, you mention you've had a few people look at her. Have any of these people been chiros and/or vets? Besides the vet you've already mentioned? Even if these other people are knowledgeable horse people, a chiro or another vet will be able to pick on things a non-specialist wouldn't.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

I've ridden and owned Arabians and shown a few at UK County level and never had one cross fire - they have to perform in exactly the same way as a regular horse
Your horse is either having physical problems or its pulling/bracing/stiffening itself against your hands so not using its quarters and hocks correctly or she's not able to balance herself correctly if its happening when you ride in a circle
Perhaps you could post a YouTube video of her cantering so we could get a better idea of what she's doing?


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## Dehda01 (Jul 25, 2013)

I have an Arab mare that will occasionally crossfire when she is out of shape because she has one weaker stifle. I never would let her continue on it. I work on strengthening her and making sure she is in condition at the beginning of the year ( she often gets 2-3 months off during the winter) by lunging in side reins, and if she break under saddle. We stop and start over until she can maintain her leads well. 

But at your mares age I would be more concerned about permanent changes than with my mare who just has a known minor conditioning issue.


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## horseluvr2524 (Sep 17, 2013)

I'm curious to see what @gottatrot has to say on this topic, if she feels like chiming in?


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## Yogiwick (Sep 30, 2013)

XeniaSprings said:


> I have had a few people look at her. And they all say she is fine. The vet says she is healthier than most 12yr olds. She canters on her on all the time. And when I ride her I have to fight with her to keep her from cantering. It's her favorite thing to do and she don't act like she has trouble with it. *And from everything I have heard seen and read crossfiring is natural for her breed.* From what I can tell she has never been trained to not crossfire.


That's a new one :shrug: Somewhere with my extensive experience with the breed I missed that...

I have never heard of ANY breed that tends to crossfire as a trait (though gaited horses may have awkward canters that not the same thing imo). Crossfiring is NOT normal and NOT natural.

Did you answer if she does it at liberty or just with you on her? How long has she done this? You have 3 options- look into why she is and fix it (get a chiro and a lameness specialist) as she DOES have something going on, OR don't canter her (and maybe don't ride as something is going on), OR ignore all of that and pretend she's fine and canter in 2 point. OR you could approach it as training which is a moot point until whatever issue is fixed and you said you don't want to do.

Due to her age 2 sounds like the most reasonable option, though I would have at least a basic exam from a lameness specialist to determine what's ok and what isn't. She definitely doesn't need to be pushed at this point in her life!!

I would also be curious for a video.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Crossfiring isn't natural for any breed unless she is part cow.

At any age, an abnormal gait is usually the result of one of three things IME
1) Pain. If the horse is hurting, it will alter it's movement to minimize the pain
2) Balance. A horse with poor balance will often travel in a way that will allow them to keep their footing in spite of the lack of balance.
3) Habit/training. Once it has become a habit it can be very hard to break. The habit may result from pain earlier in their life that is no longer present or it can be a result of a balance issue that was never corrected through training.


I've found that if they crossfire consistently on BOTH leads, it's more often a balance issue. If it is only on one, it's more often a pain compensation issue.

At her age, if you can rule out pain, then I'd probably just live with it. However, it would probably help her greatly in ALL aspects of her life if you were to go back and slowly re-train her to be supple and hopefully learn to use her body better.

As for riding it out, if you really want to learn, the best thing to do is to ride it in 2-point until you can get the feel and find your own balance before you try sitting down.


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