Here’s a dressage exercise that can improve a gaited horse canter while improving a rider’s balanced position and timing of rein, leg and seat aids.

How to improve a gaited horse canter using dressage

By Jennifer Klitzke

In the short time Jennie Jackson was in Minnesota this year I learned so much. Here’s an effective exercise she taught me and my naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse: collected walk-canter-walk transition on a 15-meter circle to improve our gaited horse canter.

This exercise helps the rider organize their rein, leg and seat aids; develop effective use and timing of the aids; maintain a balanced riding position through the transitions; direct the horse into a relaxed, forward balance canter transition; and develop quality canter steps.

Here’s how…

Establish a collected walk on a 15-meter circle:

• Establish a forward moving collected walk in a shoulder-fore position by applying inside lower leg calf through the ankle at the girth. This helps to bend my mare’s body and step her inside hind leg under her belly toward her outside front leg.
• My outside indirect rein is held slightly against the neck with more contact than my inside softening rein. The outside rein keeps the outside shoulder from falling out and keeps the neck rather straight.
• The inside rein massages as needed to soften my mare’s jaw so that she flexes at the atlas (poll) slightly into the circle enough where I see the corner of her eye.
• It is important that her ears remain level without tilting her head to the side.
• The energy from her hindquarters travels through her body and into the connection with my hands which feels like her shoulders lift, and she becomes lighter in front while I feel her back puff up under my seat as she engages her abdominal muscles.

Develop collected walk to canter transitions

• The timing of this transition is important. The outside hind leg is the first step in the canter sequence. When I feel my mare beginning to step her outside hind leg forward, that’s when I need to apply my outside lower leg behind the girth.
• Maintain the inside lower leg at the girth and the rein connection so that my mare holds the bend through the canter transition.
• Focus on a still riding position during the upward transition without tipping my upper body forward. This allows my horse to step into a balanced canter.

Teach the gaited horse canter transitions to quality canter steps

• Bring the horse back to a collected walk before the canter quality falls apart. Over time, the horse will build more and more consecutive quality canter steps.
• During the downward transition from canter to walk, grow taller in the saddle while applying a slight half halt with the seat, a brief closing of the fingers on the outside rein, and a release as the horse moves into a forward moving collected walk.

Watch: Walk-Canter-Walk Transitions on a 15-meter Circle

Thank you, Jennie Jackson, for coming to Minnesota. I have finally connected with a coach who not only has the applied knowledge and proven experience through the highest levels of dressage with Tennessee walking horses, but someone who communicates gaited horse concepts in ways I understand. My naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse has never moved better!

For more about Jennie Jackson and dressage en gaite, visit Jennie Jackson: Dressage en Gaite.

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