I'm retraining an OTTB right now and have experienced the same thing. It takes a lot of patience. Its OK to trot 30 min after a canter set if it means she doesn't get her way. My horse would always jig when walking after our warm up because he knew we would do more cantering so I walked him for about 40 min until he stopped anticipating moving to a faster gait. We just went around and around until he gave me one full time around the ring without trying to trot. Now its not an issue. And I still do the same thing now if he reverts back to it. He wants to go faster so we go slow until I get what I want.

Just be patient and don't give in
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Thanks for the input wetrain17. I know it takes patience, but I can't help but be frustrated when all I wanted to do was come to the barn and jump a bit to relax from my day, but instead, spent the whole time trying to get the trot back. My mom kept telling me to just be done and leave it for another day, but I'm not that kind of person- I HAVE to end on a good note. I kept thinking I can't lose this battle, while my mom was telling me that she (the horse) was going to win any way and just be done. Then I got more frustrated because it's not supposed to be a battle, it's supposed to be fun. Today, she was fine- I did w/t/c and then only spen 10-15 minutes getting back to the trot. Sad thing is- tomorrow, we are going to be back spending a ton of time at the trot after the canter. Someone oce told me that for the first year or two with a Thoroughbred, you take one step forwards and three steps back. I never got that untill I actually had to train one...

 

That's the thing with training. You can't go in thinking "today I'm going to do this" it doesn't always work out. Have an idea what you want to work on but don't be surprised when you end up working on something that you thought you had down.

Heck when the weather turned cooler, it was all of a sudden a struggle to do a 15 meter circle at the trot, something I always do when riding. He would throw all of his weight on his forehand and couldn't bend. It took me all week to get him to do them correctly again. Its just how it goes. And one day I went in thinking "oh here we go again, a battle to circle" he was perfect the entire ride.

I 100% agree in ending on a positive note, but don't be upset if that positive is getting the horse to walk around the ring once without trying to trot
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It's just a big difference from my gelding. I can hop on him bare back and just using a halter and go jump a course and then out to a trail ride. With this new mare, I have to work around the way she's feeling/acting that day. Some days, the only thing that keeps me from just giving up and letting her win, is the idea that if I do it right now, I can have all the fun I want later and not worry about holes in her training. I went in expecting too little and now I'm expecting too much.

 

Just remember when you're training or working a horse you are on HORSE time, not them on PEOPLE time. My mom used to drop me off at the barn after school so I could ride my OTTB, Boozer. She'd say, "How long will you be?" and I'd always say, "I don't know, have to ask the horse." and she'd get mad thinking I was being a smart a$$ but I wasn't. It takes what it takes, not a second more, not a second less.

Set really small goals and quit the second you reach one. Instead of WTCTW, surprise him and just go WTW and get off. Then work him in hand over trail obstacles or small jumps. If you have time, put him away for a couple of hours and then get back on and go WCW and don't ask for the trot at all. When you ask him to walk after the canter, if he gives you 2 or 3 walking steps, tell him good boy and get off.

These guys LOVE to run and go fast. Once you get him to give you control and you can depend on him, reward him by taking him out on trail with a friend and let them both run flat out for a little while. There's nothing like the feeling of a horse going wide open with your hair blowing back and your eyes running tears from the wind hitting them. Then make him walk all the way back home, doing circles all the way if you have to.

 

Just remember when you're training or working a horse you are on HORSE time, not them on PEOPLE time. My mom used to drop me off at the barn after school so I could ride my OTTB, Boozer. She'd say, "How long will you be?" and I'd always say, "I don't know, have to ask the horse." and she'd get mad thinking I was being a smart a$$ but I wasn't. It takes what it takes, not a second more, not a second less.

You worded that great! I havent really thought of it that way, but your right!

 

I'm not sure if I'd ever be able to stop if she got going full speed. She gave me a little idea of what it felt like 2 days ago, when she took off at racing speed up a hill (bucking) when I was trying to get her butt in shape. I started out with small goals, but I guess they got harder and harder. Time for a reality check... No one at the barn understood why I was so excited that I got 3 correct canter steps, but they didn't know that I'd been working for a week trying to get the transition right and then not have her cross fire. My goal went from that to expecting her to just canter 20m circles on the right lead correctly, untill I asked her to stop. I can see how ridiculous that sounds now

 

I'm not sure if I'd ever be able to stop if she got going full speed. She gave me a little idea of what it felt like 2 days ago, when she took off at racing speed up a hill (bucking) when I was trying to get her butt in shape. I started out with small goals, but I guess they got harder and harder. Time for a reality check... No one at the barn understood why I was so excited that I got 3 correct canter steps, but they didn't know that I'd been working for a week trying to get the transition right and then not have her cross fire. My goal went from that to expecting her to just canter 20m circles on the right lead correctly, untill I asked her to stop. I can see how ridiculous that sounds now

Don't try the full out run for a while yet, but once she's consistant and listening to you as you ask for things, then ....You'll know when!

Baby steps, baby steps for a long time yet. Boozer was a toughie in the beginning, I even had to introduce him to the Quick Stop, a more barbaric device has never been invented, and then one day the light bulb clicked on and stayed on from then forward. He turned into probably the best horse I've ever ridden, jumped, gone swimming with, raced with, trail rode with, etc etc. I even 'parked' him in a parking spot at McDonalds one day so I could go in and order. He never moved.

 

Although I'm not familiar with a quick stop, I'm very familiar with a one rein stop. I'd love to get to the point where I trust her as much as my other horse and as much as you trust yours. Unfortunatly, she still has her redheaded mare days and acts like a chicken with her head cut off, so we are working up to trust.... Still wearing my vest for every ride and always carrying a dressage whip (although, her ground manners are PERFECT)

 

You've discovered one of the fun features of an OTTB! Accepting your horse for what he is might help you feel better about the situation.

I'm currently working with my OTTB on this-often success means a few minutes of trotting without trying to speed & just a small cantered circle. If I get that & he's calm, we stop with that success. I've found my trainer's advice of keeping him mentally busy during our rides really effective. We do small circles, figure 8s, etc before moving on to trot or canter.

 

This.

I admit that I had little to no patience with Indie at first. We spent our first "official" ride together at a walk for forty minutes, just trying to not trot off. After a couple rides of us each getting insanely frustrated with each other, I re-evaluated everything. I went home and found a dozen videos of her racing, and for me, that put it into perspective of how she was ridden for seven years of her life.

Next day, I went to the barn and I changed up everything in our ride. More bending, more circles and most importantly, more patience.

It's been about a month now, and I can honestly say that I haven't gotten frustrated with her since the first couple days I got her. She went from constantly trying to trot off at the trot with zero bend (not to mention her first lateral flexion attempt) and constantly trying to push me around to a horse who I love working with.

It sounds like you're off to a great start with her. My tip is to just set completely realistic goals and time frames. With Indie, I can't imagine having a perfect W/T/C by next month. Our first canter in a lesson was quite something.. it took me a good five minutes to get her calmed down. She was extremely light to the hand, but she still had that racing mentality.. so for a week, I worked on walking and trotting with lots of transitions. During my next group lesson, she went from a canter to a walk.. on a loose rein. I think it's those tiny little victories that really gives me the motivation to get through those moments where she's having mental meltdowns, like the past few rides when we work on side passes. (we've discovered that she has no clue about giving to pressure with the right leg)

The best advice that I've received from my instructor at this point is, if your horse isn't giving you what you want, take it one step back. For Indie, we usually have to go two or three steps back.. but within a few rides, we can take a step ahead. At first, I felt like I was completely back-tracking but in the long run, I can see the difference.

 

The horse has jigged/trotted to the starting gate for over two years, and then he gallops fast. You are expecting too much from this horse too soon. Work on your walking and trotting and transitions. Set up ground poles. You are retraining everything he knew from the track. I'd wait a few months before asking for a canter. He needs to listen to your requests first, without fail. On the track they race on the favored lead and have no training on using the other so one side is much stronger. Focus the majority of your work on the weaker side. This will get his body in better balance. Don't think in terms of not cantering but how you are helping him.

 

The horse has jigged/trotted to the starting gate for over two years, and then he gallops fast. You are expecting too much from this horse too soon. Work on your walking and trotting and transitions. Set up ground poles. You are retraining everything he knew from the track. I'd wait a few months before asking for a canter. He needs to listen to your requests first, without fail. On the track they race on the favored lead and have no training on using the other so one side is much stronger. Focus the majority of your work on the weaker side. This will get his body in better balance. Don't think in terms of not cantering but how you are helping him.

I just wanted to say how much I agree with everything said. My instructor tells me these exact same things, and I agree with her every time. She said that our next three to four months are going to be strictly 80% walk and 20% trot, if the walk work goes well that particular ride. I do get to try a few canter transitions in at my group lesson, just because my instructor wants Indie to keep up with the others. Although our goals at the canter are much different and we're content if she just gets the correct lead.

Ground poles as well, up until this week, my instructor and I don't think Indie has ever gone over a set of trot poles. The first time over them, she stopped and tried walking around.. but I pushed her through them and after a couple times, she went over at the trot with perfect striding. She tripped only once and now she pays close attention. It'll really help with her rhythm. It's getting easier as she builds up the correct muscles though, I'm already starting to see somewhat of a topline on Indie.

I just couldn't imagine jumping her after two months of training. I didn't even start jumping Major until he was five and a half, after a good two years of working on flatwork.. and he already had a good base of training started by my instructor.

 

Agreeing once again. I think the fact that she takes so long to calm down is a huge indicator that she has holes in her training and you need to take five steps back and work on filling the gaps.
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For some reason the site logged me out and now I can't get back to my last post about the QS for some reason, so here's the link I forgot to put in that post:

RUNAWAY MULES - MULES GETTING ABOVE THE BIT - WHOA MULE FAST STOP HACKAMORE BRIDLE

 

I should've been clearer- this horse has been off the track for a year now. She started her training up again in March and I bought her in July. She CAN canter nicely- I've seen it and felt it. Somedays she just doesn't want to give it to me and that is when I get frustrated. I know I've done it before and I can do it again, but I get frustrated when it takes a long time. We are definatley working on realistic goals now though. I can get a perfect walk and trot in a frame right when I get on (which is great because a month ago- I couldn't get her to flex at all). The problem is keeping it. I usually will go back to the walk and do serpentines if I can't get the trot back after the canter. This helps some times and not others. For some reason, I have total patience with her on some things and others, I just expect her to know. For example, today I spent 2 hours working with her just to get her to load onto the trailer. I've seenn her get on and off this trailer 4 times before, but recently she doesn't want to get on it. I had endless patience with this, but not with our canter...

 

In that case my advice is completely different. If you are having a "Patience my a$$, I'm gonna kill something!" day then stop, get off and do ground work, go back to hand trotting over cavaletti, work on patterns from the ground, stuff like that. The second I feel my patience run out, I stop what I'm doing and walk away. If I don't, it all goes straight to....... anyhow, so I might as well quit before the fight.

 

I bought her as a project horse, not expecting too much out of her, but I needed something to keep my mind off my gelding's health problems.

Sounds like pretty typical Project Horse issues. Is your mind off your gelding's problems yet? If so, give your girl a carrot and thank her. It's easier to be fussing about upward transitions and the quality of a gait than it is to be fussing about a significant health problem. You're getting good advice, BTW. Enjoy your project!

 

Thank you ThursdayNext. I am a bit more distracted now with all of the work she needs. Turns out she is a tad accident prone herself (yay :/ ), but we are making tons more progress than I thought we would. I'm thinking we might be able to compete in eventing and that wasn't even part of the picture when I bought her. From what I'm hearing, the canter problem is pretty typical, so I think we'll work through it enough to actually do a canter dressage test and not get marked down for doing a medium gallop instead of a medium canter .