How to Train a Horse to Canter

Train a horse to canter--once the horse is comfortable trotting--by encouraging the horse with your voice and putting both legs up into a canter. Do not expect a horse to canter immediately or for very long, as the muscles have not yet been developed. Learn more about training a horse to canter with advice from an equestrian team head coach in this video on horse training.

Once your horse is comfortable at a trot both posting and sitting, and you're comfortable stopping and going, you can start to teach your horse how to canter. So to begin with we'll just go up to a sitting trot. Now obviously if your horse hasn't cantered with you on him before it's not going to be the smoothest transition and you're just going to encourage with your voice with a cluck and with both legs your outside leg back, up in to a canter. If it's the first time you've cantered your horse don't expect it to be very smooth and probably don't want to expect it to hold it for too long, as they won't have the muscles developed yet to hold that canter.