Taming the canter--- You have to have a canter that COMBINES balance and impulsion. (Jack Le Goff) (And the two are contradictory qualities.) Jack went on in great detail to explain that in jumping, there are three possibilities only to get to the correct take off spot, stay in your current canter, shorten it if you are going to get too deep, or lengthen it if you are too far away. Not enough impulsion, you can`t lengthen. Not enough balance, you can`t shorten. And it`s easy to get one without the other, hard to get both at once, because although creating impulsion isn`t that difficult, the horse goes forward and DOWN, ruining the balance. Too much check, check, check, now the horse is light, but the impulsion is destroyed. The link between the two? Proper use of the half halt. And if you have 12 fences on your course, you have to get that right canter 12 times. Most riders I see are pretty unaware of the need for this delicate interplay between two somewhat contradictory qualities instantly available at the same moment. Most head on down to the fence in any old canter, and have to take whatever distance they get because the horse`s canter is hard to adjust But then, most riders didn`t have a Jack Le Goff hammering on them for years. Plus---sorry to say---they need to practice more if they want to have the requisite skill sets.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 10:32:37 +0000
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