Training & Advice - Canter Leads with Ann-Maree Lourey

This article is from the December 2020 Horse Deals magazine.

When you first learn to canter, it’s pretty exciting! It is soo much more fun than trotting, and often it is something you’ve been looking forward to. It is so exciting that I can still tell you the name of the horse I was riding for my first canter – Cassidy – 35 years ago. It was a group lesson and the rider in front of me cantered so we did too. I was so disappointed when he fell back into trot – I was hooked.

Of course, like all beginner riders I had no idea whether I was on the correct canter lead or not – it was enough just to canter. It might not be as exciting but it is very important for the comfort and balance of the horse.

How do you know if your horse is on the correct lead?

The ‘lead’ is determined by the order in which the horse uses his legs. The official description is that on a circle or curve, the horse’s inside front leg reaches further forward than the outside leg. It looks like the horse is literally pulling itself along with its inside leg. If you look down over the shoulder, you should be able to see it coming out in front just a little more than the outside leg. And you might feel it with your inside hip. But the simple way to describe it is to compare it to a person skipping. So when we teach it here at Byalee Stables, we skip a circle beside the arena to show how simple it is. Or get the student to do it! And then we get them to skip a circle with the wrong (outside) leg leading the skip. It is so uncomfortable and you feel like you are twisted through the body – so imagine how the horse feels.

To start with, you probably won’t be able to tell if your horse is on the correct canter lead or not, but soon, and with your coach telling you when it’s right, you will be able to feel when it is bumpier than usual – if you’ve ever ridden a camel then you will probably guess quite easily! The correct canter lead feels more balanced, more like a rocking horse.

To ask for the correct canter lead, you should really know how the horse’s legs work, in what order, when they canter. On a circle, the outside back leg is the first one to move when the horse canters. Then comes the inside back leg and the outside front leg together, and finally the inside front leg. Then there is what is called a moment of suspension where all four legs are off the ground – the kids call it the ‘whee’ moment! It’s the moment that causes some people to be a little afraid of the canter, especially if they have had a bad experience or fall in the past. My students are always amazed when they find out that the leg they think is pulling the horse along is actually the last in the canter.

When you do start to ask for the correct canter lead, it’s usually a good idea to try in a corner or on a circle. If you ask for canter on a straight line your horse might ignore your amateur directions and simply choose the canter leg he likes best, so set yourself up for success.

And how do you ask for the correct canter lead?

In an ideal world, you would bend your horse to the inside, put your outside leg back behind the girth and ask the horse to canter by nudging it with your inside leg. If you feel like this would use up too much brain space, don’t stress, it just means you need more practice before you are up to controlling your arms and legs separately. Wait a few rides and try again.

But when you are up to it, this is how it works: your outside leg goes back and tells the horse to move its outside back leg and that’s how it knows which leg you want it to canter on. Then your inside leg (your accelerator) tells it WHEN to canter. On a Grand Prix horse, you won’t even be able to see the aid for canter; it may be as small as a tightening of the inside calf muscle. The less educated the horse, the more obvious it will need to be. Some riders think that the outside leg goes back in a way that looks like a windscreen wiper to ask the horse to canter, and that’s true for a baby horse, but the more grown-up the horse, the more likely it will be that the inside leg is what actually begins the canter, while the outside leg told it WHICH leg to canter on.

Now, nine times out of ten on a school horse, you will get the correct canter lead just by using a corner, asking for bend, and putting your outside leg behind the girth. But sometimes you won’t be on a school horse, or you will feel that the horse is ignoring you, and you won’t get the right canter lead. Then what?

First, you will need to check that everything was how it should be when you asked for the canter.
• Check that you actually thought about it before you asked.
• Did you warn the horse that you were about to canter?
• Did you keep your reins the same, or did your hands wave up and cause the reins to be loose and flap?
• Was your inside leg on the girth, outside leg behind the girth?
• Were you sitting on your inside seat bone? Just a little?
• Did you have more weight on the foot on the inside stirrup (like when you skip on foot!)?
• Watch that you didn’t let the horse slide sideways – if his weight is falling onto his outside front leg, that’s the leg he will canter on, not the inside one you were hoping for!

What can you do if it isn’t working?

Ask again, thinking about what you could do better, with aids that are more black and white. Make sure you are sitting up straight and tall, riding with energy (the horse) and travelling in a straight line. Try trotting an ice cream cone (half 10m circle halfway down the long side of the dressage arena and a short diagonal line back to the corner letter, asking for canter immediately after, in the corner).

Worst case? You can flex the horse to the outside instead of bending it to the inside. What this does is cause the horse’s weight to fall onto its inside shoulder, making it more difficult to canter on the outside shoulder and easier to canter on the inside one. Physics!
Most important of all, don’t get frustrated. Your horse might have previously belonged to someone who had no idea what a correct canter lead was, and it may have become used to only cantering one way. This would create more muscle on the ‘good’ side and none on the ‘bad’ side, so it might take time.

Kids don’t go to school in nappies despite what parents think while toilet-training them – horses don’t canter on the wrong leg forever. And don’t forget, there is always someone out there who knows more, who has trained it before. Never be too embarrassed to ask for help and enjoy the journey!

Article by Ann-Maree Lourey

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