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Master Your Canter Departures and Leads

Lindsey Knight

Executing the canter departure and staying on the correct lead are fundamental skills, yet most riders continue to have difficulty with them long after they’ve learned them. This video will show you how to master these skills once and for all.

The first key to success is to understand that, like most fundamental skills, the canter departure requires much more than the robotic application of aids. To get it right consistently, you also have to develop a good feel for your horse’s body position and how he’s set up at the point of departure.

The same goes for staying on the correct lead once underway. You need to become very sensitive to your horse’s motion at the canter, and your own, to detect when he has switched to the wrong lead or the cross-canter. Developing these higher-level capabilities is what this lesson is all about.

What You’ll Learn

This lesson will show you how to learn these two skills so well you can execute them reliably, even under the most challenging conditions. You’ll learn:

  • How to perform movement exercises on your own (without a horse) to improve your sense of correct canter motion and how your own body should feel in the saddle
  • How to watch a horse on the lunge line to develop a more accurate vision of what’s going on with your horse during the canter
  • How to sense through your body, rather than through your sight, whether your horse is on the correct lead, counter-cantering or cross-cantering
  • How to use special techniques to pick up the correct lead every time in the show ring

Master These Fundamental Skills

Just click an Add to Cart button below to purchase, download and view your video. Within minutes, you’ll see how you can develop a better feel for the canter and improve your performance in the show ring.

Length: 18.5 minutes
File size: 212 MB
Download: 4 minutes
$8.99

For Macintosh/PC with QuickTime Player/iPad (MP4)
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For Macintosh/PC with QuickTime Player/smart phone (smaller MP4)
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For PC with Windows Media Player (WMV)
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If you’re concerned your computer won’t play the file you want, you can try out our test videos first. Click this link to access them.

Link: Test Video

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