Cantering

Ok so I need help... I have been riding arabs and morgans since I started riding and now I am getting a quarter horse and as you might already know, the gaits are different. I'm still getting used to riding her. Soooo she has a pretty fast canter, which makes me bump, which obviously makes her go faster and makes me loose control. So advice please and thank you in advance! It would be cool if you could give me some excersizes to do before I ride or while I'm warming up. -Bree aka Chicolena2011

I'm bumping this up!!

I know just what you meen....before I got keva, I had been riding horses and know that I got her ( a pony ) I have to get used to that canter!...i have been having a hard time sitting it so found out that ( even tho you shouldn't do this) but ALL your weight in your heels, and lean back, some times your heels will go forward but that's ok, just don't let them go really forward..once you get okay with that ride the canter in a normal position and you will find it easyer....hope it helped

It's hard getting use to any canter.....my first mare 14.2 marab had this danty little canter and when I switched horses once and got on a tb/clyd I felt like I was bull ridding.....bree what aprt of maine are you in???? I have a place in york county

I'm in Northern Maine wayyyy up in aroostook county.... yea.. some people think that we have no electricity, live in log cabins, and go to the bathroom in out houses... Some kids from NY came up here (not to my town alitte more south) and they thought they were going to get attacked by a bear and that there would be no traffic what so ever... yea right.. lol. But yea. It's still cool to meet someone from maine.

I would try riding without your stirrups, that helped me sit and slow down!

Call me different, but when cantering (on my QH) I stand up in the stirrups, just enough to get my bum out of the seat and lean fowards, so that my hands are on either side of her neck and I just let the reins hang loose in my fingers. I tried many different ways of cantering, until I found this position - and I find it the most comfortable, and I think it allows Tilly to go a little faster, I think having my hands on her neck also reminds her that I'm on her back - she can get a little carried away with it...u know how it is with the adrenaline pumping ... I know this postiion makes it so very easy to fall off, sraight over the front of the saddle, but I like this position I've been told that my riding positions make other riders feel 'uncomfortable' - pppfftttttt, whatever that's sposed to mean!!!

Honestly, it just takes time. Switching from a lazy Appendix Quarter Horse to 3 upbeat ex race horses was a huge change. But you learn to adjust. No stirrups might help. And maybe if your trainer or someone had you and the horse on a longe line so you there'd be more control, maybe that'd help you learn?

You bounce because you are braced, plain and simple. Here are a couple of articles that will help you.

http://www.parelli.com/info_page.php...%20Horse&t=lit

http://www.parelli.com/info_page.php...%20Horse&t=lit