Shaping Your Horse's Canter

Q I have done most of the training on my fouryearold gelding myself. He will yield off my leg do a turn on the haunches and collect his trot to a jog. I just cant seem to slow his canter down. When I try he just breaks into a trot. How do I keep it together?
A You were on the right track when you used the word together. As you have discovered pulling on the reins will only cause your horse to fall out the back door into a trot. So how do we shorten a horses stride while keeping the canter rhythm going? Put simply by using the brakes and the gas pedal in unison. Initially this may seem counterintuitive to the equine mind but if we use the process of shaping we can teach our horses any skill with less stress.

First let me remind you to keep your expectations realistic. Not every horse is physically capable of loping slowly enough to be a competitive Western pleasure horse. Horses that are suited to Western pleasure are shorter in stride dont have much of a natural motor and WANT to lope slowly more often than not. Asking your horse to travel at a pace he cant deliver with quality is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole and the result will be an artificial fourbeat canter. However any horse can be asked to slow his rhythm and compress his canter within a certain range.
Get Your Tools
Having the right foundation in place before you build is key. Likewise you need to have specific tools before asking your horse to perform this type of work. Its great that your horse already knows how to yield laterally to your leg as this is one of the necessary tools. You should have control of your horses hips as well a horse that fishtails his hips to the outside of the track will be unable to compress his stride. Start with turn on the forehand work to teach him to keep his hips straight and underneath of his body. Make sure