How to Sit the Canter

Learn how to sit the canter. A professional trainer gives you tips for finding your position.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Are you ready to canter?
   1) Can you post or sit the trot without stirrups?
   2) Can you follow the rail and make a circle at the trot?
   3) Can you slow your horse down without it affecting your balance? ...or do you get off balance sometimes when you try to slow your horse down?
   4) Can you do two-point at a trot? How about along the rail, on a circle, or on a figure 8?
   
   In preparation for learning to canter, it will help a lot to practice sitting and posting the trot without stirrups. A good way to gauge if you will be able to stay on during a canter is if you are able to ride at the trot without stirrups for 2 arena laps each direction. Trotting 2 laps without stirrups is similar in difficulty to cantering a lap with good quality.

2. You can either canter in two-point or canter sitting. Even if you're planning to sit the canter, it helps to know how to do two-point. Most people half stand and half sit when they're learning and get very confused.
   
   People naturally either have an open pelvis or a closed pelvis. If you have an open pelvis, you naturally ride more like a dressage rider and are better at sitting the trot or cantering sitting. If you have a closed pelvis, which gives you a more forward position, you naturally ride more like a hunter/jumper rider and it is naturally easier for you to post or do two-point.

3. Sitting the Canter:
   
   To sit the canter, hang on with your legs and do a scooping motion with your seat. You scoop the saddle up like the motion you do when you are pumping a swing. Lean back when you scoop and that will help keep your pelvis open.
   
   If you tilt forward at the hips when you are trying to sit the canter, you'll get pitched forward out of your saddle. Keep your hips open and scoop.
   
   Check to make sure you have a nice bend in your knee. Your hip to knee to heel should make a triangle. If it doesn't, you won't have very good lateral (side-to-side) stability.
   
   Going around the corners, sit on your inside seat bone. Prepare ahead of time so centrifugal force doesn't pull you to the outside. Hang on a more with your inside leg than your outside leg and bring your weight back off of your horse's shoulders so he can pass through the turn.
   
   If you are doing a good job participating in the motion with your horse, then you should be able to lift your legs up and move them around while cantering on a tight circle and stay completely in balance. It is important that you really want to canter and are excited about the motion. It is common for people to freeze up like a deer in headlights and fall forward off the outside shoulder. If you are fearful, you will not be able to scoop your saddle up effectively and won't be able to ride the canter.
   
   Try to build up to cantering 4 laps around the rail. That is a good distance to be able to go in preparation for riding in a walk/trot/canter class at a show or to be able to stay on during a runaway.

Tips & Warnings

• If you're going to sit the canter, you can't have much weight in your stirrups. If you lock your knees, you'll get pushed up and off the outside. Keep your ankles loose.
• Focus more on riding the horse's back legs. Stay in sync with them. Let them carry you up like a wave. Exaggerate that motion in your body.
• If you blank out when you start cantering, count the rhythm of the horse's feet 1, 2, 1, 2... If you are still blanking out, don't try to force yourself to learn. Studies have shown the brain does not retain things we try to learn when we are blanking out due to fear.
• Allow your hands and arms to undulate with the movement of the forelegs and your hips and legs to undulate with the movement of the hind legs. Your arms and shoulders need to flow with the horse in order to keep from pulling on his mouth.
• Equine riding and training are hazardous activities, which may cause serious injury or death to you, your horse, spectators, or other participants. Kali Vanagas, PonyPros, and their associates will not assume any liability for your activities. This document provides general information, instruction, and techniques that may not be suitable for everyone. No warranty is given regarding the suitability of this information, the instructions, and techniques to you or other individuals acting under your instructions.

Resources

• Free Horse Related YouTube Videos

[ponypros]

on 11/12/2009 Thank you for reviewing my article! I hope you enjoy the others equally.