Canter Aids - Its a code to teach your horse

During my long and varied riding career I have had many different ideas about the canter aids and these have worked for me with varying success depending on the horse or the application. 

When riding in the high country on mountain horses in an Australian Stock saddle it has generally meant pointing them up hill, giving the reins, giving a good squeeze with my legs and sitting up in a 2 point position. 

When I was in Colorado riding a quarter horse in a big old western saddle a bit of a “kissing” noise with my mouth did the same job. 

More recently when I joined as a trainee teacher with the EdL I have been studying the EdL recommended canter aids to ensure that I can progress from simply getting a canter, to getting the lead I want, canter from trot and canter from walk, doing counter canter, developing canter laterals, flying changes, collected canter and canter pirouettes. Its a long list so I had better start with the right foundations!

The “correct” Canter Aid is very much a code that we setup in training with the horse, through consistency and repetition we can train the horse to any set of canter aids, but it is important to agree with your horse a useful aid which can be carried forward.

It is also important to ensure that the horse is given a position at the time of the canter aid to enable a transition which comes from the strike off of the outside hindleg weight bearing and thus a gain of balance rather than a strike off by the inside foreleg which results from a loss of balance.

Below: 

❎The first diagram sequence shows a canter transition from a loss of balance 

✅The second diagram sequence shows a canter transition from a gain of balance

In the case of a Right Lead (in the above diagrams) in Ecole the Legerete it is recommended the rider  anticipate the weight bearing of the left hind by weighting the left side of the seat and achieving a “Gain of Balance” strike-off. As with everything the rider's seat should do what is most helpful to the horse.

The inside (right leg) of the rider should be positioned at the girth and the outside (left leg) of the rider should be positioned behind the girth.

While it sounds simple enough, due to the horse's natural asymmetry it is often not quite so easy 💖.

Below you can find two training strategies to give the horse the correct position for a Left Lead which is often the more difficult canter lead to achieve.

Christine Mogensen

Principal - Blinkbonnie Equestrian Centre

Reference : “Twisted Truths of Modern Dressage” Philippe Karl

Note : The photo in the header of this blog is Bailey (Linbil White Russian), he loves to canter and here gives a very good display of the weight bearing of the outside hind, that one hoof carrying the whole horse!