When the young horse gets comfortable with a rider and understands the basic cues, i.e., go forward, halt, changes of direction, it is time to request a few steps of trot.
There are a number of ways to get there. As you have seen in email 21, requesting trot and canter with a rider on the longe line is an obvious approach. Graya already knew how to trot and canter on the longe and responded to the verbal cues. Adding a rider was only a balance puzzle.
We saw another way to get trot in the last email. Giulia, walking next to Malou, increased the speed of her walk more and more until Malou fell into a trot.
You can use the same approach to get canter, i.e. increasing the speed of the trot more and more until the horse falls into a canter. However, that’s easier on a longe line or ridden as most people have difficulties walking that fast next to the horse \ud83d\ude02.
I am too lazy to run, instead I use mats. If you have done your foundation training well, the mat has become \u201cmagnetised\u201d and your horse may actually speed up approaching it. You can use the magnetised mat to build your trot cue.
My horses, especially Graya and Asfaloth, speed up to get to the mat. Here is cute example where I ask Graya for a half pass at liberty. After a few beautiful steps, I release her to the mat and she decides to trot there.
By the way, the half pass increases the chances of a trot as it allows her to stretch her legs (push) after bending her joints (carry) in the lateral movement.<\/p>\n\n\n