Compiled by Martin Diggle: Canter is the most complex of the schooled gaits, and, when carried out well, the most expressive and impressive. It is the gait from which, in its finished form, complex movements such as tempi changes, zigzags, and pirouettes are produced.
Because of its complexity, it is essential that due consideration is given to the quality of the canter at each stage of its development. Rushed or careless work will seriously compromise the gait, and advanced movements such as collecting and lengthening, changes of lead, and lateral work in canter - of they can be produced at all - will be forced travesties, lacking elegance and grace. Excerpt from the book Masters of Equitation on The Canter: Introducing the Canter [Note from the compiler: There are, basically, two schools of thought regarding the introduction of canter under saddle. The first, which tends to represent the older Classical view, is that the horse's education (and thus his balance, suppleness and obedience) should be fairly advanced before any canter work is attempted - the aim being to obtain a good gait from the outset. The second school, which becomes more prevalent in relatively modern times, does not deny the basic virtues of the first. It does, however, attach certain schooling advantages to the relatively early introduction of canter - provided that this is done with due discretion. The ethos of this school might be summarized as allowing canter, where appropriate, and benefiting from its influence on longitudinal suppleness and impulsion. As with so much in equitation, it is perhaps most constructive to view these approaches as alternative, rather than opposing, schools of thought. Like most of the older Masters, de la Gueriniere believed that horses should be at quite an advanced stage of schooling before being asked to canter. The preparatory work he describes would, of course be beneficial - the piaffe between the pillars helping to strengthen the hindquarters. Shoulder-in, the exercise he developed, is mentioned overtly for its primary role - suppleing - but it is evident that de la Gueriniere also appreciated its value in preventing/correcting crookedness in canter.] It is a principle to which all experience masters subscribe that a horse should never be galloped before having been suppled with the trot so that it neither bears on the hands nor pulls at the reins. One must wait, then, until the horse is supple in its entire body, trained to the shoulder-in and the croup to the wall, and is accomplished in the piaffe between the pillars; and as soon as it has reached this point of development, it will perform the gallop willingly and without much coaxing. Judy http://iceryder.net http://clickryder.com
