Canter

When I first went back to horse riding, canter was a big problem for me. I was ok with the trot, but when I got into canter, suddenly the ring was going round all too quickly, and my balance and rhythm were all wrong.

Take your time with the canter. Make sure you can sit on a horse lightly, that you are not tense and rigid. Get really familiar with the walk and the trot. Even though the canter is faster, the trot is technically more difficult, particularly the sitting trot. Learn how to keep your seat in the saddle, and overcome all that bumping up and down in the trot, and the canter should be come easier. Bumping up and down hurts and unbalances your horse - aim for a smoothness that comes from being fluid with your horse.

　When you've spent time with your horse, and you have begun to master the links between your tension and how connected you are to your horse, suddenly the canter won't seem so scary, and it will develop naturally from the other things you have been doing. Don't set out one day to do a canter. Do it when it's right for you, not because someone else thinks you should do it. If you let it lead on naturally from the other things you have done, it shouldn't be like a huge mountain you have to climb.

As you go up though each level in horse riding, if you have leant the basics of how to connect with your horse, and move with rather than against your horse, the rest will come more easily. How far you can stay flexible throughout your body? How far can you move with your horse rather than get in the way? How far can you check that rigidity that leads to fear in both you and your horse? How far you can go, and how good you can get with horses, will depend on these things more than anything else. Get the basics right first, and the rest will just follow.

Walk
Trot
Western riding