Tips for canter transitions when nerves affect my position and heels come up

[Lovemycat2023]

I ride weekly - usually a group lesson or a 30 minute private - and have done for about 20 years.

I'm struggling with canter transitions on a horse I’ve been riding recently and just can’t keep my heels down. I think it’s because I get nervous (only on him) and tip forward / grip with my knees. He has a tendency to go all giraffe-y in the transition which is the bit that makes me nervous. I’m working on outline and the right bend, and that’s coming, but I feel my body is letting me down.

I know the cause but having a real mental block getting past it! Does anyone have good suggestions please? Thanks all

Just back from hols, v nice. The stables I found was really well organised with nice horses and wonderful tack. By the sea near Nantes.

So the guy in charge asked me what galop I have (this is in France and the exams are galops). When I told him 2 he said well you can trot if the teacher taking the group is happy. Nothing more.

So we got our horses ready, mine very well mannered about 16.5hh bay, got on, headed out through some forest to the beach. Single file, a eight of us and dd and I are at the back.

Had a quick trot then the teacher says something something gallop say stop of you are in difficulties. So we are cantering and off we go. My horse is like a bloody rocket trying to overtake the horse in front and I'm just trying not to bounce and above all not to fall off. Absolutely no chance of stopping my horse as they are all off in a group, didn't even ask for the canter, just boom.

We did four long canters across two beaches, last one really long and fast, very exciting and although I didn't manage to thrust much, I did not fall off and it was great. Have very sore thighs today.

Sorry for long post but v pleased with myself!

@NormalAuntFanny well done! That sounds like it was sink or swim, and you swam!

Thanks for those who suggested lunge lessons - I’ve got one booked in a couple of weeks which I definitely need. My nerves got the better of me today and I didn’t even ask for canter. I think a change will be good for me as I have hacks / private lessons for the rest of August.

So I didn’t get to work on the lunge - so hot I needed to ride inside instead. But I did have a great lesson! My instructor suggested I put my stirrups up a bit, which means that I wasn’t “reaching” for the correct position to ask for canter.

It did help, as did focusing on my body position and turning my top half. Also lots of walk to canter work. It was excellent! It wasn’t the horse I have been struggling with, but I think the points we looked at will carry through.

Sounds interesting @Lovemycat2023, I always tend to ride extra long except if jumping so might try that next time.

Dd has graciously agreed to do some individual lessons next week when the horses are back from their holidays so we'll see.

They are usually a bit mardy the first few weeks after their vacances so I will pick carefully!

Please can you explain what remedial hypnotherapy is.
Somebody on my yard has suggested hypnotherapy would be good for me nerves.

Remedial hypnosis is similar to hypnotherapy, but without the trance element so you're in control, awake and take part in the process. It's very practical/solution focussed; we identify the problem and work directly with your subconscious to resolve it.

This blog post from a couple of years ago has more info;

www.outofchaostherapy.com/post/nervous-here-s-why-and-what-you-can-do-about-it

It’s taken me ages to get back to cantering properly (trauma/accidents/fear of being out of control after being run away with) but I’m now happily cantering on two different horses and it’s no longer a ‘thing’ in my head. The horse I’m mostly riding at the moment really brings his shoulders up when he goes into canter which I was finding tricky. What’s helped is sort of perching in the saddle as I ask for canter - connecting the front of my pelvis with the front of the saddle so I meet him when he’s coming up and then rolling my pelvis back into the saddle on the way down. Not sure if that makes sense but it’s made the moment of transition much less jarring and it’s miles easier to get into the rhythm in the first couple of strides which then makes it much easier to keep the canter going. I realised I’d turned a corner when my instructor started asking me to canter in the warm up instead of it being the main focus of the lesson.

The warm up is so important for me - especially if I can ask for canter in my own time.

In my lesson this week I had a bit of a breakthrough. Had an advanced coach and for the first time was told to sit more still rather than going with the movement to make the movement smaller. My ride was a dressage horse, with all the buttons, so pleased to canter on both reins with decent transitions.

Now I need to be able to take what I’ve learned back into group lessons (I’ve been writing it down to help)

Very interesting to me to see all these different little nuggets of information and tips so thanks everyone!

I try to keep one or two in my head every time I ride but often feel I'm trying to do three difficult things at once in the canter so fail at all of them.

We restart proper lessons on Saturday with a new coach so I am already refreshing the website to see who I'm riding and hoping it's a horse I like. 🐎