I am having trouble with my canter too, but I just moved riding school and have finally learnt how to do it properly! :D anyway, what you do, is just kind of keep relaxed, keep your arms and shoulders relaxed, but your hands off the horses neck. Also, try your hardest to keep your upper body still, and just let your hips do the work! You need to kind of do a backwards circle with your hips, because then you will be with the same rythm of the horse. Hope this helps! (:(:(:
Once you are in canter, relax and don't panic, let your lower back oscillate and go with the rhythm of the horse. You can lean back a bit if you have to. Don't balance with the reins as this could hurt the horse, and remember practise makes perfect.
Cantering on a horse is quite easy once you have mastered the trot. when you squeeze/kick the horse on to canter if you are riding in an arena then keep your inside leg behind the girth, and try and use the other leg to kick it on. When the horse is actually cantering, keep calm. horses can sense fear. Gently rock with the saddle, remember keep straight, keep your eyes looking between the horses ears, keep your thumbs up on the reins, NEVER look at the ground otherwise thats's where you will end up. and if all else fails then just lean back a little, the horse will do the rest.
Sit deeply and kick. Once in, scoop the saddle with your seat . If the horse is fast, do half halts and keep a slight, constant pressure. If the horse is slow, push with your seat and keep constant pressure.
Always have light and calm hands and make shure you don't put your hands up during the canter keep them down becuse horses don't like it and they wont be your freinds and then you wont get a god canter, hope it helps.
