How can I get a cantering horse to slow down to a lope?

Question

She jogs and stuff but doesn't lope...I need this to happen quickly to show her on the 10th of Aug. so I can prove I can keep her

Answer 1

Put all your weight down and lean forward.

Answer 2

The old way was too do a slow canter, than stop.Pet your horse. Slow cant a few strides, stop. Canter,Stop. Do it nicely, and pet your horse ofter, but the idea was that you may stop at any minute so they would continuesly go slow. Just the old old way LOL

Answer 3

Well I would let her canter out a bit when your first get on to help get her tired and not so fresh.  When you feel her start to slow then let her walk.  Ask again for the lope if she is just going a little fast tighten your reins for three strides and then relax for three keep doing this until she begins to slow.  When you tighten the reins if you feel her wanting to stop just lightly squeeze with your legs.  Now if she is really taking off on you when you feel her speed up ask her to do a circle and stop.  Then ask her to canter again if it feels like she is taking off and going really fast circle and stop her again.  Now only do this if she is going really fast and does not respond to you trying to slow her down.  Also at the canter to help with slowing down and collecting big circles are good.  Not too small she stops but big enough she has to bend through them.  Best of luck

Answer 4

Work in the center of the arena in a smaller circle.  Use a snaffle bit and two reins during training.  Your stirrups should be long and your legs reaching down on her sides. You must have a collected jog before you'll get a collected lope. When she is in a true collected jog, then cue  her just like you cue for collection, and when her outside hind is about to hit the ground, transition into the lope by cueing for the lead.  Sit deep and leg her hard when she canters...let her go and just relentlessly deepen your pelvis into the saddle, with only enough rein to have her feel the contact and keep her in as tight a circle as it takes to keep her from galloping off.  Don't lean into the canter, but straighten as you sit deep...it is hard for her to maintain speed if you do this....stay deep and vertical.  You can even lean back against her forward movement while you train to slow her down...alternate left and right handed gentle rein cues when you do it.

As soon as she slows her pace enough to suit you, and maintains it for a complete circle, take her to the rail and keep her there if she maintains it.  If she speeds up on the rail take her back to the center to work in circles again.  You want her associate the rail with working at a slower pace.  Always start her in the center and never let her on the rail until she is collected and slow.

The best training to slow the canter into a lope is lateral work like two tracking and shoulder in and out.  If you don't have these trained, your show is too soon to get that done.  But it should be worked on in the future if you want to compete successfully. When you can go to a two track if the lope turns into a canter, she will learn fast to stay slow.

Answer 5

Holding back on the reins isn't the best way to slow down or stop a horse in my opinion.

Try bumping the reins instead. That is give both reins a quick bump back to see if she slows down. If she doesn't respond, keep bumping until she does.

David

http://gentlenaturalhorseman.blogspot.co...

Answer 6

sit back/tall

for the first few strides let her canter at a normal pace

then ask her to slow down by holding back with your reins, but not to the point where she trots

then after a few strides of that let her canter a little faster again (don't ask her to, just release the pressure on the reins), then slow her down again and so on.

keep making the periods of slow canter longer and longer until she understands that cantering slowly is easier than going back and forth.