Crooked Canter Problems Mini-Series
This 6 video Mini Series is for anyone who wants to make their working canter easier to ride, especially if you feel like your horse is holding brace, is crooked, or one side feels different than the other.
One of the biggest problems at the working canter is crookedness. It’s an asymmetrical gait to begin with, so core crookedness often shows up even more at the canter.
I put together these videos to help you see several different ways that addressing alignment can improve your horse’s ability to maintain energy, balance, and relaxation in the canter. We’ll start with a video about bend and counter bend at the walk and trot. You will want to be good at this first before attempting to do this at the canter.
Next I’ll show a jumper that is very stiff at the canter. He is defensive about yields in general and you’ll see how improving his openness to moving laterally at the walk and halt will improve the canter.
The other videos show different horses with different canter issues, all of which were solved by improving their alignment, particularly by being able to talk to their shoulders. I know this mini-series is going to really help a lot of people! Don’t forget to leave a comment!
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Crooked Canter Mini -Series Intro - June 2023
This 5 video Mini Series is for anyone who wants to make their working canter easier to ride, especially if you feel like your horse is holding brace, is crooked, or one side feels different than the other.
One of the biggest problems at the working canter is crookedness. It’s an asymmetrical g...
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Bend and Counter Bend at Trot - Jan 2018
In this video, Karen demonstrates counter-bending exercises to do at the walk and trot that help in creating alignment, flexibility, and suppleness. This will help riders coordinate between bend and line of direction. These exercises are helpful for anyone who has working or collected gaits, and ...
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Bend and Counterbend Exercise at Canter with Natilla - Jan 2018
This video is a continuation of the exercises in the video: Counter-Bend Exercise At The Trot (January 2018). Karen will show how to do bend and counter bend in the canter and counter canter. These exercises will build the rider’s coordination and skill in differentiating between cues for line of...
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Improving the Canter by Improving Yields At the Walk - Feb 2018
In this video we see DN Instructor, Shawna Lewis, riding a client’s jumping horse in a lesson with me to help him improve his canter. This is the first time I am seeing the horse and since he has a lot of mental and physical brace I decide to do an exercise at the walk in order to improve some of...
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Improving a Horse That Prefers One Lead at Canter - June 2015
Karen coaches a student who is practicing Training Level tests, but has had a long-standing issue with picking up and maintaining the left lead. The student has made huge progress, but still needs to find the balance where the horse can reliably pick up and sustain the left lead. Watch as Karen t...
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Improving The Canter By Correcting Leaning On Inside Shoulder - June 2015
Karen coaches a student who is preparing for First Level dressage tests. They have trouble with energy at the canter, and keeping balance on 15 meter circles. Karen traces it to a fundamental imbalance in the shoulders (the horse leans on his inside shoulder when on the left lead). By focusing on...
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Maintaining Canter - June 2017
Karen coaches a student to help her maintain the canter. This can be challenging for many riders because you want to suggest they keep going, but you don’t want to chase them or push them and ruin the quality of the canter. This video will give some tips for things to do to help you have more suc...
