I am certainly no expert at this but it seems to me it would be beneficial to help your mare canter properly by long lining her with a dually first and then a bit. This will give you better control from the ground teaching her to canter at a slow pace without pulling on her mouth. Then you can add the bit with side reins to teach her not to push through the bit. Once she has mastered this from the ground then you can work from the saddle. As far as lead changes, there are several video's on the Uni teaching how to cue your horse to do lead changes and as I recall even a counter canter segment somewhere. I hope this helps,
Kleinne

I fully agree with Kleinne re: longlining: this way you can observe her more objectively and see if (as I suspect) she is better circling one way than an other (often happens); you can then work on the 'weaker' side to give her more balance. However, some other things to consider. This horse seems to be giving a clear message of confusion and/or discomfort. This could be (a) she doesn't know how to do it/what you want (which you have acknowledged in the signal giving) (b) disunited canter from over single lunging (easy to check this - watch Montys videos on this its really useful) (c) sore back (or other soreness) (d) heavy hands when riding/poor posture (not saying you are a bad rider, please don't think that but it might be an instinctive/subconscious action taking place that you are not aware of - mine is bracing on the stirrups!) So solutions could be: check back, video yourself or get someone to watch you riding, assess for disuntied canter, train with longlines to help build flexibility, balance, and strength. Good luck and let us know how you get on.

I can only recommend to look at Heather Moffett riding style! She and Kelly Marks ( Friend of Monty) are good friends. And as far I know, Heather helpes Kelly to improve her riding. :-) Her book is fab!

Hey, anibrit!
Monty teaches in the Uni that to pick up a canter, you shorten the outside rein slightly to open up the horse's inside shoulder! Applying the outside leg sends the horse into the correct lead!
Hope that helps and that you have success in training your horse!
Nickers!
Holly

Dear anibrit - would you concider letting a chiropractor look at your horse? It sounds very much like she has a blockage in the SI joint - often our horses compensate their movements until they get "locked" and sometimes they slip in the pasture without us knowing it. I would start with a good chiro or equitherapeut and go from there, Good Luck! Keep up the spirit Warmest Ann Lindberg CI Sweden

Thanks all for your comments.

She is not disunited in canter. She luckily does not have back problems (I checked, since that was my first thought, too).

So. Long lining it is.

Thanks for letting me know about the correct canter aids. I watched all the canter videos from Monte. That was really helpful.

I'll keep you posted!

Thanks again.

Thanks Anne - you have encouraged me to re-book the chiro for my Tricka who still has problems.

Dear Anebrit - how is your pelvis doing? We humans happens to be right sided or left sided:) so, it might be in your hips and your muscle memory is different - try to make as little effort as possible when asking for the canter and look up and out from the way you are traveling - could work brilliantly!
And MaggieF - lovely!
Warmest Ann

Annebrit
For your aids, your outside leg should go back behind the girth and your inside leg stays near the girth. For the reins, it may depend from the horse. with a young horse, you can use the outside rein to flex the horse on the outside, in order to free the inside shoulder. It may helps the horse to take the correct lead, with the default of bending the horse on the wrong direction. With a more advanced horse, use the inside rein to bend slightly the horse in the direction of travel, but it's a slight contact just to give an indication. Your weight (and the horse weight) must goes on the outside to help the horse to free the inside front leg. One trick to take the correct lead is to start cantering from a shoulder-in, because this way the balance is correctly on the outside. Then the horse will take the correct lead, it's 100% guaranteed. you can also walk on the inside slightly, then back on the track so the weight will go naturally on the outside.
Be soft on your reins so the horse is soft to and don't toss the head. Move with your horse during canter, be with her in a balanced way. If you feel she's going to stop, ask her not to with your inside leg. If when your mare starts wher starts too fast, with too much energy, don't pull the reins : goes along with her, relax, and take and release the reins.
Also, before asking for the canter, prepare the horse and put some energy in yourself. Horse must be relaxed with the mouth soft. when the horse is light and filled with energy she will start cantering using the smallest cues. reins are not so important as long as you are soft, find what works best with your mare, but focus more on your weight.
Don't accept a bad canter. stop your mare, think and retry.
Hope it helps
Cyril

Wow. Thank you! I will definitely try that Cyril.

Ann. Yes. I think that might be part of the issue. I DO look down to see if she gets on the right lead.

I am going to ride tomorrow morning. And I will watch out for that.

One thing I thought about, when you mentioned muscle memory Ann: I have been thrown off bad by a different horse some years ago, always when trying to canter, several times until I cracked my shoulder blade. Maybe I am still dealing with that in the way that I am not as relaxed and with the motion in the canter like I could be. Do you think that might have anything to do with it?

Very likely Anabrit- I had a horse trip on a slight down wards slope out in a field about 15 years ago- he went down and rolled over the top of me, I was fine he wasn't. It still affects me now- I find I get so tense in my body that even a trot on the same sort of ground must be really uncomfy and confusing for my ponies as I tend to brace myself- I find that by borrowing and riding a well schooled horse sometimes or joining in with occasional lessons at our local riding club helped me. My two are nice little chaps but I am aware that there are grey areas and that canter strike off is the worst as I am only really confident/relaxed on an up hill strke off which obviously limits their schooling and I make sure that other people ride them occasionally who don't have the same hang up. MC