During the last year I have been working on the roundness and softness of the canter with Gulipipas. When his canter doesn’t feel good, it is because the inside hind leg is not flexing enough. This results in a rough feeling under the seat and resistance against the inside rein. To the extent that the inside hind leg softens and flexes more, the canter stride becomes rounder and softer.
This made me think of Gustav Steinbrecht’s statement that the impulsion and roundness of the canter strides comes from the outside hind leg (1884, in: 1995, 221):
“In the canter more so than in the trot, the outside hind leg must be controlled. Its activity determines impulsion and roundness of the strides. These characteristics, which identify the correctly collected canter, can most quickly be re-established, if they begin to diminish in some way, by putting the horse into a slight travers position. The easy continuation of the bent-straight position is the only way to establish the effective cooperation of driving and restraining aids and thus obtain true collection.”
To me it feels like it is the inside hind leg, rather than the outside one, that creates the feeling of roundness and softness. Interestingly, Steinbrecht recommends a slight haunches-in position to get more control over the outside hind leg. The reason is that the haunches-in brings the outside hind leg more underneath the body. However, it also transfers more weight into the inside hind leg, which you can use to flex its joints in order to create more elasticity and springiness. Steinbrecht and I seem to be looking at the same thing from different angles.
The outside hind leg has to lift the forehand up. The more it steps under the body, the higher it is able to lift the forehand and the more uphill the canter will be. It has to jump under the body with a certain speed and energy, so that canter feels like a series of small energetic jumps, instead of feeling laboured.
The inside hind leg has to catch the forehand when it comes back down. When it flexes enough, the body mass can roll over both inside legs into the suspension phase, and the inside hind leg gives it a final push. The back and withers stay lifted, and the horse stays round. If the inside hind leg doesn’t flex enough, there is a hard, jarring impact on the ground which deadens the stride. The back and withers will drop, and the horse will invert.
In order to soften and strengthen the inside hind leg I have tried a number of exercises. Two of them stood out because they worked especially well.
Tip 1. In the first exercise I move the haunches to the inside for 3 strides to bring the outside hind leg under the body. This can also be used to increase the liveliness of the canter. Then I straighten the horse by moving the haunches back to the first track for 3 strides. This engages the inside hind leg more, and if you drive with your inside leg in the first beat, when the withers are lifting and the outside hind leg is on the ground, you can lift the forehand higher and engage the inside hind leg more. Afterwards I ride a volte which flexes the inside hind leg by moving the weight of the forehand onto it. Together with moving the haunches back out, the volte also prevents the horse from using the haunches-in position to get crooked.
Tip 2. The other exercise that worked very well plays with emphasising different parts of the canter stride. It begins with accentuating the upward motion of the forehand (1st beat) with my seat for 3-4 strides. During the next 3-4 strides I emphasise the downward motion at the beginning of the 2nd beat by sitting more heavily into the inside hind leg. My goal is to create so much lift of the forehand and lowering of the inside hip that the horse approaches a pirouette canter. At the end I lengthen the strides to a working canter during the 2nd beat. I send the horse forward with my seat and drive a little with my inside leg. You can drive at any time during the exercise with either leg if you feel that it is necessary. In Gulipipas’s case the quality of the canter improved after the first 2 parts of the exercise, when I returned to a more forward, natural canter.
I hope these exercises help your horses as well. If you decide to try them out, you can let me know if they improved your horse's canter or if you had to modify them in some way.
- Thomas Ritter
