Q. I am thirteen years old, and I have shown Quarter Horses all my life. I recently got into the Arabian circuit and purchased an Arabian gelding showhorse for this upcoming season. He is six years old and won’t take his lead hardly EVER! I have had professionals ride him, and not even they can get him to take his lead.
My gelding has been checked by a chiropractor because we thought he could have had an out-of-place rib or something, and he was perfectly fine. He was being shown when we bought him and was and is in great shape. I am using my round skirt Arab show saddle. He had a lead problem when we bought him. He had a complete physical by our vet when we bought him; all was and is fine. My trainer suggested I dismount and let him canter without a rider in the arena, and he took the lead. Stubborn little booger. He never strains to take the lead – just prefers not to, I guess. After maybe six stops and starts, he’ll take it. Then maybe after five or six strides, he does a flying lead change on me! Could there be any other possible reasons why he is not taking the lead?
A. I’ve known a couple of horses with a canter problem similar to your horse’s. In fact, I OWN one of them! My mare is a small Arab, and even riderless on the lunge, she’ll cross-canter a majority of the time. In her case, it’s just excitement that causes the goofy canter. Once she works the beans out of her system and begins to tire, she’ll canter properly on the inside lead. Cross-canter is her alternative to bucking.
I also gave lessons on a Quarter Horse gelding many years ago who behaved exactly as you have described. He would swap canter leads every few strides. His inconsistency, however, was fear-based. He was such an emotional basketcase, the canter scared him to death. He couldn’t relax enough to maintain a lead. I swear that horse could perform one tempe change all around the arena. It was both amazing and amazingly sad. It took a loooong time to build up his confidence level to the point where he could maintain a lead, and much of the work consisted of teaching his young rider to relax in the saddle, no matter how fast he cantered or how many times he changed leads. She eventually learned to leave his mouth alone and relax her seat and legs, and he eventually learned to hold a single canter lead.
I suspect your horse’s canter lead problem is a result of several different issues. First, Arabs are generally considerably *hotter* than the Quarter Horses you’re used to, and there’s a good chance some of this may be your horse’s way of blowing off a bit of steam (like my mare). However, the fact that your horse will take the proper lead when unmounted at liberty in the ring, and will maintain that lead without changing, indicates to me that there’s more to this problem than just high spirits (or stubbornness, as you have mentioned).
Arabs tend to be very actively attuned and responsive to their riders, whether or not their riders intend for them to be. I suspect your gelding is responding to cues you are not even aware of giving him – cues which would be too subtle for many Quarter Horses to notice (no, I’m not prejudiced against Quarter Horses. I happen to own three of the beasts, along with one crazy Arab! 😉 ). In particular, I suspect you are using your weight and balance in a manner that is inspiring your horse to swap leads at the canter. Because Arabs are such sensitive animals, they are likely to move quickly to accommodate any shift in their rider’s balance. They are equally likely to respond to any tension, anxiety, or negative anticipation they feel from their riders. It is essential that you maintain a relaxed position directly over the center of your horse’s spine to hold him in a consistent lead. Even the smallest shift of your weight to one side or the other, or tension in your body, may be enough to inspire a lead change. For more information and suggestions regarding rider balance at the canter, please read the response at the following link:
Finding Proper Balance at the Canter
One last consideration regarding your horse’s lead problem … it’s very possible he may be too stiff on the problem side to be able to hold a lead consistently. Even if he seems flexible enough at walk and trot, and even if he can hold a canter lead without a rider, when you add the weight of a rider to the increased speed of the canter, any stiffness problems will become increasingly apparent – perhaps resulting in inconsistent canter leads. Horses, like people, tend to be stronger and more flexible on one side of their bodies. Just like most people are naturally either right or left-handed, most horses naturally move more comfortably in one direction than in the other. It is up to the rider to help stretch and strengthen the horse’s body equally on both sides to help the horse move evenly and flexibly in both directions.
You can help stretch and condition your horse’s body through lateral exercises such as leg-yields, shoulder-in, haunches-in, and turns on the forehand and haunches. Incorporating such exercises into your daily riding routine can work to dramatically improve your horse’s flexibility and should make it much easier for him to pick up and maintain whichever lead you request. Along with helping to increase the flexibility in your horse’s spine, lateral exercises will also assist in improving his overall movement and responses. These exercises should be done only in small amounts at first to give his muscles time to adjust to the new demands. Lateral work isn’t a quick fix. It will take time to increase your horse’s flexibility, but it will be well worth the effort. The following link will give you a few preliminary pointers:
Bending and Softening Exercises
I hope this helps you and your horse find a solution to his elusive canter lead.