Sustaining a canter

Yesterday Champagne and I had a very nice session. He still isn’t all that forward, but he has improved the cadence of his walk tremendously (though I have to remind him) and after about half an hour of warming up (trotting on a loose rein, leg yields, etc.) he will canter.

Lee, who apparently at one time owned Champagne, once said he has “the Cadillac of canters”. When she said it I wasn’t tremendously convinced. For one thing, I was still recovering from my cracked sacrum so cantering was painful, and for another thing I had been riding Fred, the big off-the-track thoroughbred, at my first barn. He truly did have a great canter, and more, he loved to canter, so much so that it was hard at times to get him to stop. (Trotting was something he didn’t like very much, but that’s another story.)

But now I see how nice Champagne’s canter is. Once he finds the rhythm, which doesn’t really come easily to him apparently, he rounds up without prompting. There isn’t much “hang time” in his canter (when all four feet are off the ground) and consequently there isn’t a lot of bounce for the rider. So in theory I should just be able to sit back and enjoy.

But now that we have established that he will canter, we have another issue: he drops out of the canter unexpectedly. Sometimes I can tell that he is going to do it and I can prompt him, but sometimes I miss the signal and suddenly we are just trotting. So that’s the next thing to work on, I guess.

Meanwhile yesterday was hot and muggy, with a gorgeous skyscape of towering clouds with sun-silvered edges. To combat my heat intolerance I have learned to douse myself with water before riding. That works well but results in my becoming very, very grubby while doing horse care. Champagne is looking glossy and elegant; I am looking like one of those third-world people who picks through trash for a living. Luckily Champagne doesn’t care as long as my pocket smells like carrots.