Did you know that in jumping, the quality of your canter has a huge effect on the quality of the jump? It’s just like in dressage, where the canter quality affects all the movements – half-passes, pirouettes, and flying changes!
In this week’s video, we are talking about the shape of your canter stride. As the well-known hunter jumper rider and coach Archie Cox says, “the shape of your canter determines the shape of your jump. If you have a long, strung-out canter, you will have a long, strung-out jump. If you have a nice round canter, you will have a nice round jump, and it will be easier to achieve your distance.” The same is true if you ride dressage! If you don’t have a quality canter, you won’t be able to achieve a quality movement.
We want our horses to have a nice uphill, jumping canter. This is achieved by adding more energy without allowing the horse to cover more ground in the canter. Whether you’re jumping or riding dressage and teaching the flying changes, the basic quality of the canter is of utmost importance.
Check out the video where I’m riding Mercurio and he does a perfect demonstration of how a poor canter quality makes for a bad “jump” (or cavaletti pole in this case as I don’t really jump😂). It’s pretty amazing to see the difference!!
I hope this video helps you improve the quality of your canter for a better jump or more quality movement.
Happy Riding!
Amelia
P.S. Wondering how you can improve your canter even more? Check out my free PDF mini-course all about the canter!
