How to teach a horse how to do a pirouette at a canter?

becca.: How to teach a horse how to do a pirouette at a canter?
I’ve been riding this horse, and I believe that this horse has greater potential than just being a normal schooling horse. He has a great canter and gets collected really easily, but I haven’t tried doing it at a canter yet. He can do it fine at a walk though. So how do I introduce him to a canter pirouette?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Mamma2
First you have to learn how to do the basics so that you can keep him from drifting and falling over at the shoulder (Previous question you asked). After that, you have to learn a LOT more before attempting to do a canter pirouette on a school master let alone trying to train a school horse yourself to do something you haven’t been trained to do. Take your time and learn the basics. Work your way up. You will have the strength and skills then to work with the horse. Also, he needs the basics in order to have the muscle and strength to handle it. Pirouettes aren’t easy and while I personally love doing canter pirouettes and found that they were easy for me, I had also spent many, many years of hard training to learn how.

Answer by Sadie L
Listen to what Mamma2 says. You must have the basics (and some) down before you can attempt to train a horse to do a canter pirouette. You can start to work towards them more though by asking for a lot of collection in the canter, while still maintaining the jump. Gradually (and over several rides, probably weeks) you work him into a 10 meter circle and focus on putting most of his weight on his hind end. Do this for a little (it’ll probably be hard for him at first) and then you can start to make the circle a little smaller and smaller. Make sure that when you are working on this that you don’t let him speed up or stop moving. Keep the pace consistent. And even if you can’t do it for long at all, if you work with him gradually he should get better and better about it. Eventually (and after work with a trainer) you will feel as though he’s doing a “walk pirouette” in the canter. 🙂
Have fun!