The time has come to deal with Justin's cantering issues. Justin is a grade appy- probably an Arabian-Appy cross, judging by his coloring and conformation/movement. I have owned him for 1.5 years. Justin came from Virginia, where he had been used as a jumper. Justin had been taken to a trainer because he became increasingly out of control. His owner's decided he was not worth paying the bill and left him to the trainer after only a month. I traded an unbroke but well bred, athletic AQHA gelding for Justin because I am more comfortable re-schooling a horse with bad habits then starting a green horse.
Good points about Justin
He had had a lot of riding time and so is very comfortable carrying a rider, does not buck, rear, or kick.
He has reasonably good and safe ground manners.
He is very brave on trail rides and does not spook
He is handsome (never hurts!)
My husband likes to ride him (the three times a year he rides so this does not affect him much)
Problems with Justin:
Well, a lot. The normal litany is of course, no speed control, no stopping, dropped shoulders on circles (this really disproportionately aggravates me), no lateral movements. Picking up contact with the bit caused him to brace against the bit and go even faster. The muscling on the underside of his neck was much more developed then his topline, indicating he has spent most of his life in an inverted frame with lots of contact. .
Most of this stems from his way, way too strung out forward movement. When I first got him, he would go from an ok walk to a maniac trot, with each leg thrusting out as hard as possible. He could keep up this mad, frantic trot for over an hour (yes, I tried this). Must be that endurance from the Arabian? Cantering is worse- he bolts into a frantic, scrambling canter that devolves into a gallop. This is almost completely out of control. It is clear that he has been ineffectually half-halted ad nauseam by someone, as half halts cause a momentary shifting of weight back followed by a lunge into even more vigorous and strung out forward motion. Riding with contact on both reins triggers a sort of snowballing effect, causing bracing, charging, and his mind to tune out the rider completely. The well-developed muscling on the underside of his neck testify to years of being ridden braced strong against contact.
What have I done in the past 1.5 year with him? Well, I was in a mid-life chicken shit phase when I first got him and so only walked and trotted for several months. This was ok, we worked on slowing the trot and learning about maintaining a regular working trot in a relaxed fashion. Things were moving along not too horribly on all fronts except cantering. Then, I got a nice horse w/o so many problems and pretty much stopped working with Justin. So he has not been on a regular riding schedule for sometime.
Any ways. I have decided to cowgirl up and put a focused 30 days of riding into Justin with the goal of getting his canter controlled. What are my goals? Simple, I want to be able to pick up either lead in a relaxed fashion, canter from point A to point B, change gaits, stop, ride in circles, move laterally, or maneuver around ground poles or what ever else on a loose rein, without any psychotic frantic downward spiraling. I am looking for a calmer, responsive, more controlled canter. I am not looking for slow and I am not concerned about head set at all.
Well, that is the introduction to my training project. My goal is to keep an honest and detailed record of this experience. We have had two high intensity rides, working towards this goal but I am too tuckered out from writing this to document what was done and how well it worked.
