Leans on bit

Here's a question I got today about a horse who leans on the bit. My answer is below: I rode a horse this afternoon for a lady who indicated he had a tendency to bolt off when cantering.  He is a 17 year old warmblood.  Previously was trained as part of a four-in-hand combined driving team.    

I didn't canter him today since he was not in balance at the trot, but it appears that he more or less just has a tendency to get stronger and stronger at the canter and pick up speed.  Not really a reactive bolter or anything like that.  His owner cantered him a little bit before I hopped on and he didn't do anything out of the way.  

He is VERY heavy in the bridle.  If you drop him he doesn't really speed up he just gets strung out.  He's a smart boy and seems willing enough.  Let me know if you have any recommendations on getting him lighter, I can't recall working with one who leans this bad.  He's built pretty uphill and is a nice mover, more balanced than I expected.  Needs some fitness and some more strength in the hind end, but I don't think that will completely resolve the issue.  I couldn't figure out an effective half halt today.  He is not super hot.  Horses were running around the pasture next to him and he wasn't bothered.  He moves off the leg well and is easy enough to maneuver the various parts.  Brakes don't work so well.  Can't seem to get more than a step or two of self carriage at a time.  He's more fun than a gym membership.

An effective half-halt

I think you put your finger on the problem when you said you could not figure out an effective half-halt.  He may not have one.  I would start there and teach him one.

After a little warm up, do some walk-halt transitions.  When he halts, give the rein a half-inch forward so he is standing in balance with no pressure.  Then reconnect with your heavy, soft, elastic elbow as you walk on.  When you ask for the down transition make sure you have a soft, steady connection in your hand and that your seat is following his motion.  Then raise your collarbone briefly in a little pulse that says "wait."  Don't stick in it, just use the pulse of energy to let him feel your seat balancing him more uphill onto his haunches.  Do one or two pulses and then close your fingers and stop your seat as you do the final pulse and halt.  Try not to back your hand.  Instead ride him into a fixed hand.  Then give the half-inch release and let him stand for three or four seconds.  Praise and repeat.

If he starts to get crooked as you ask for the halt, walk on and straighten him, then try again.  He doesn't have to be super straight in the halt yet.  Just try to get across the idea of listening to your seat.  If he ignores your pulsing collarbone lifts, try closing your thighs a little more against the saddle so that your body mechanics transmit to him during the half-halt.  Don't get stuck in gripping with your thighs though.  Release and be light again once you make the pulse to "wait."  His response will come through more after the release.  You also want to make sure he steps off from the halt with energy.  Don't let him loaf.

Next, do the exercise using trot-walk transitions.  In the rising trot, make the half-halt pulse at the top of your posting stride.  Close your thighs/knees a bit and lift your collarbone, thinking "wait."  Your hands should continue their usual job of softly connecting and suppling the horse.  Only close the fingers and fix the hand briefly when you feel the walk is ready to happen.  At that moment, sit and swing the horse into walk, releasing the fixed hand and following the horse's motion.  If he runs through your hand, bring him to a full halt and release, let him stand in balance, then try again.

I like to do these transitions on a 20-meter circle too.  There are several variations that help teach the half-halt.  One I like in particular is, in the rising trot, to play the short-trot/long trot game.  Go a bit more forward for half the circle, then use your half-halt "pulse" a few times and come to a shorter trot.  Remember to use your body first, not the reins. Once you get a balanced shorter trot (not slower, but shorter steps), go forward again.  The hands should always be doing the same job of suppling (with a rotating inside rein) and connecting (with a steady, elastic outside rein) the horse during the half-halts.  When you are ready to make the actual down transition, the fingers close and the hand is briefly fixed while your seat and leg support the horse to step his hind legs under his body mass while slowing the forward motion.  Remember to change directions and rest often with a big free walk.  This is hard work for the horse.

For the half-halt to be successful, the horse needs to bring energy forward from the hind legs over his back and connect to the rider's hand.  Then he has to be attentive to the rider's request to make the front end "wait" while he brings his hind legs more under his mass.  If you only ask for him to "wait" using the reins, he has several avenues of response.  He may just slow down, or hyper flex and drop the connection.  Or, lean on the bit, as you have indicated this horse does.  Because a lot of his training has been as a carriage horse, I suspect he is not used to being attentive to the rider's seat.  

What I like about teaching the half-halt using the collarbone pulse is that it allows you to use one of your most effective rider tools: the long lever your body forms from your seat to the top of your head.  We learn to be elastic and stable in our torsos, spines, and shoulders; to carry our heads erect; to let our arms drape off of our shoulders.  Then we have this incredibly powerful lever we can use to help balance our partner.  Mostly, we focus on keeping the various parts of that lever independent and elastic, so that we don't block our horses from moving.  But in the half-halt we want to use our lever more in one piece to ask the front end of the horse to wait while the hind end catches up.  This dynamic, when we are successful, creates balance and lightness in front.  The reason I like to use the pulse, or stretch, of the collarbone at the top of the posting stride is that that is the moment when your lever is most fully extended and can be most influential.  So, this "pulse" involves a bit more stretch of the rider's torso on the front of the body, a brief lifting of the collarbone in rhythm with the horse's trot, a closing of the rider's upper legs to transmit her message to the horse, and, finally, a release.  In general, I think of my upper body as influencing the front half of the horse, and my seat and legs as influencing the hind end of the horse.   A successful half-halt comes from the correct use and coordination of all these aids, as you very insightfully indicated by your statement that you were not able to "figure out an effective half-halt today."  

I have ridden a number of upper-level horses who did not have a clear and reliable half-halt, and much of the training I focus on in a horse's education is to create a good half-halt.  I think you will be very helpful to this horse as you proceed to teach him one.

Let me know if anything here is unclear, or if you need additional exercises, etc.  Good luck and happy riding.

Beautiful evening watching the Nations' Cup freestyles!

Beautiful evening watching the Nation's Cup Grand Prix freestyle, with Laura Graves and Verdades taking individual gold and Kasey Perry-Glass and Goerklintgaards Dublet winning silver to put team USA in first place!  Just amazing horses and riders!  A good time was had by all 

Coolest music was Belinda Trussell and Anton's, riding for Canada, who took the individual bronze and put Canada in line for the team silver.  She has a beautiful move towards the end of her freestyle where she comes straight out of her canter work into piaffe, and it is just breathtaking.  Mikala Gunderson from Denmark, riding My Lady, also had a very jazzy routine with her music from "All That Jazz."  The mare clearly likes her freestyle and stayed with her music nearly hoof beat perfect throughout. I believe she finished fourth.  I also liked Kasey Perry-Glass' freestyle very much.  She has a very pretty, very correct horse, Goerklintgaards Dublet, who looks so rideable--a real pleasure to see him go.  Laura's horse, Verdades, is one who seems to have it all, and their partnership bodes well for the US teams for some time to come.  I didn't like her freestyle music very well, however.  It is too much the same all the way through and is not especially catchy or magical. Since she has the horse power to be dynamic, someone ought to help her spiff up her music.  

The Argentine rider Maria Florencia Manfredi, riding Bandurria Kacero, had the most exciting extended canter of the evening, evoking images of the beautiful pair galloping with abandon across wide-open spaces.  Unfortunately, they have a very labored looking piaffe and it makes for a wholly different effect overall.

So glad I got to see these wonderful horses and riders.  Learned a lot, coming home inspired.

How do I get my horse to accept my leg?

One of my students recently sent me this question:

Gatsby has been objecting to my leg when I move it back. He either shoots forward, leaps to the side, or gets sticky and just goes up and down. How do I get him to accept the leg? I don't want him to ignore it, just tone down the reaction a bit and not get worried about it.

Great question.

One of the happy dilemmas riders find themselves in as they advance is having horses with greater sensitivity and sometimes more power and eagerness than they can control. These hot horses tantalize us with their talent, but often frustrate our efforts to control and direct their energies. This isn't a willful disobedience by the horse. These horses need patient, knowledgeable trainers in order to learn how to work with their riders and allow their riders to balance their bodies and control their expression. Even brilliant horses, or I should say, especially brilliant horses, must learn to work normally in order to make it safe for them to express their wonderful talents. We have to help the horse balance the power of the forehand and the hindquarters in order to prevent the horse from becoming disconnected in the middle of his back.

As you know, in order to do this you need your legs. Your legs are an important component of balancing your horse at all stages of his education. As his rider, you are constantly refining the recipe for his balance by adding or subtracting energy and shaping it with your body. Your legs are a critical component of getting the energy and shape right, so it isn't an option to decide that your horse just can't tolerate your legs. However, there are ways to school your horse to the leg that will help him accept the leg and discover a better partnership in your guidance.

I believe that teaching horses to warm up is the most critical component of a performance horse's education. It doesn't matter how talented a horse is if he is always working with tension. We see a lot of horses even at the highest levels whose performance is marred by tension. The ideal dressage horse stays relaxed even as he is collected to the highest degree. He remains elastic, swinging and balanced and is beautiful to watch. This relaxation is also at the core of his soundness and mental well being throughout his life. Relaxation and elasticity should be established every day in the warm up. The routine for doing this may vary from one horse to another and take months to develop, but it should be established as the basic training for every horse.

With a horse like Gatsby who is over-reacting to the leg, this training may need to start on the ground. It's true you don't want to desensitize him to your leg to the point that he ignores it. But he may need help on the ground to accept and understand the pressure of your leg when you are riding him. When you saddle him, prepare him first with some ground work. Try adding a polo wrap around his belly that sits right behind your saddle, tucking under the panels and falling in the vicinity of where your leg hangs. Tie it loosely, but not so loosely that it flops around. It should give him the most gentle touch all along his rib cage and under his belly. Try to find a pressure he doesn't object to when you lead him forward.

Outfit him in head gear you like for ground work. We want to practice some basic bending on circles of about ten meters at the walk, just leading him from the left on the left circle and from the right on the right circle. Make sure he relaxes and accepts the belly band. Using a piaffe or lunge whip, or a flag if you prefer, have him step around you on the circle but stay close enough to touch him. Keep focusing on having him release and stretch his neck forward and down on the circle line. Watch for the swing of his barrel to grow and his inside hind leg to step under more as he stretches forward -downward and relaxes. When he relaxes and begins to swing, lay your hand on his side in the vicinity where your leg falls when you sit in the saddle. Just let your hand swing with his barrel. Do this in both directions, adding in a little more push with your hand as his inside hind leg comes off the ground and reaches under his body. This will also be at the moment when his barrel is swinging away from you anyway. You want to feel the timing as if you were teaching him leg yield from the ground. The hind leg should swing more under his center of gravity as a result of your swinging pressure. 

When he is comfortable with this exercise, try it from the saddle. Remove the polo wrap before you mount. Begin your warm up walking on circle lines. Think of your legs as lying lightly around your horse like a soft polo wrap. Your seat, from ankle to ankle, should be shaped more like an upside down "U" than a "V." Think about the way his back feels and the way his rib cage swings from side to side as he walks. Allow your legs to gently follow his motion, swinging your lower legs from side to side with his barrel. Keep riding your circle line and begin to gently add in a tiny bit more energy with your inside calf as his barrel swings away from your leg, just as you did with your hand on the ground. Your outside leg should soften, or open away ever so slightly in order not to block the swing of his barrel. But don't let it disconnect from his side--just allow. Try to find a soft, elastic connection on your outside rein that in essence "catches" the little pulse of energy from your inside leg.

If he stiffens or wants to run, keep your circle line and try to connect him into the outside rein as you flex him to the inside and continue following his movement with your seat and legs. Try to make even pressure all the way up and down your leg, through your whole seat. Keep working to relax him through the bending and by guiding his inside hind leg deeper under his body. Encourage him to stretch forward and down and lift his back, but don't throw him away. Focus on having him fill up the outside rein, stretch and swing. It's ok during this exercise, during the warm up, if he pops his shoulder out a bit. You can fix that later. What you need is to establish relaxation and understanding that your leg is a friendly tool that helps him find balance and a more comfortable posture.

Work in both directions at the walk until you feel the relaxation really take root in his mind and body. Then try it at the trot. In the trot, focus on being able to keep him connected between your inside leg and outside rein on your circle line, and that he accepts the influence of your legs. I've had horses that took several sessions at the walk before they began to breathe normally and swing, so don't worry if this takes a while. I find that this work is actually a lot of fun when the horse begins to understand that his body moves in relation to your leg. It's the beginning of the dance. As his understanding improves, you can begin to practice turn on the forehand, asking him to step his inside hind leg in time with your pulsing inside leg and using your outside rein to stop his shoulder so the hind legs can step around the forehand.

Of course, if you find that he is not becoming more relaxed with these sessions, you will need to check that he doesn't have a pain issue--saddle, ulcer, sore ribs from being kicked! You know the drill.... Good luck and have fun!

The Skinny on Canter Transitions

One of my students asked me recently what the aids are for a good canter transition.  Of course, the "simple" answer is inside leg at the girth, supple the inside rein, small steady squeeze on the outside rein, outside leg about one hand behind the girth, lift the inside seat bone, and give a squeeze with the lower legs.  But really, this rider already knows all that, and that's what makes her question such a great one.  She's really asking for the next layer of understanding.  She doesn't just want the horse to canter, she wants the horse to canter off in balance, through, and on the aids.

This is the fun part in a rider's education when she starts to focus on transitions as a measure of the real togetherness she can create with her horse.  It is a journey into understanding not just the aids, but the timing of the aids and how they relate to the horse's motion.  In order to become a more helpful partner during the dicey moments of transitions, the rider needs a more thorough understanding of the way a horse moves at those moments.

For a good canter depart we need an understanding of the footfalls of the canter.  The canter begins with the outside hind leg stepping down and lifting the horse and rider into the canter stride.  Then follows the diagonal pair of the inside hind leg and the outside foreleg together. The third beat of the canter is the inside, or leading, foreleg touching down.  These footfalls are then followed by a moment of suspension in which the horse is airborne with no feet on the ground.  Then the outside hind leg swings forward and lands to start the stride all over again.

Because the outside hind leg must initiate the transition by lifting and carrying the combined mass of the horse and rider, it is important that the leg be brought well under his body and that the joints of the leg flex, or engage.  This well engaged hind leg is in a much better position to lift and carry the load into canter than a hind leg that is stiff and/or out behind.

One of the reasons why canter transitions are difficult is that on a curved line horses tend to carry more with the inside hind leg and push more with the outside hind leg.  Also, horses generally have a stronger hind leg that they prefer to carry with and a weaker hind leg they prefer to push with.  That is one of the reasons why they favor one lead over the other.  In order to create good canter departs, the rider needs the horse to have an outside hind leg that steps under and carries.

There are many ways to improve the horse's ability and understanding of engaging his outside hind leg to carry more instead of pushing so much.  Shoulder-in, travers, renvers, and half pass are designed to help balance the strength of the hind legs for carrying as well as pushing.  But a simple exercise that I like can help horses and riders find the feel of bringing the outside hind leg more underneath the center of gravity in preparation for the canter depart.  

On a 20-meter circle line, in the walk or the trot, ride a few steps of leg yield into the circle.  Keep the horse fairly straight for those few strides of leg yield.   Use your outside (the circle) leg to pulse energy through the horse's body at the moment the outside hind is coming off the ground.  Concentrate on feeling the outside hind leg sweep forward and under the horse's body towards the inside (of the circle) shoulder and bit ring. Then flex your horse true again and move back out to your circle line.  After you ride the leg yield a few times, ask for a canter depart when the outside hind leg is stepping forward (and under--think a little leg yield here).  Canter on a few strides and then make a down transition and try it again.  Keep focusing on timing your aids with the outside hind leg until you feel you have your aids coordinated with your horse's step.  Don't worry too much about what his head and neck are doing while you work on this part.  Just consider his head and neck movements as information.  The better you get at timing your aids to help him, the more relaxed he will stay in his neck and contact.  Be sure to keep your seat centered over your horse's center.  If you get pushed to the outside (as is common in the canter), you won't be able to feel or create balance.  If you are having trouble staying centered, think of dismounting on the inside stirrup and pick up your seat and move it a couple of inches to the inside.

When you are riding, spend time working on your ability to feel your horse's footfalls.  As you ride the walk, can you feel all four steps?  Right hind, right fore, left hind left fore.  First concentrate on just feeling the hind legs step.  Your hip will get pushed up when his hind leg on that side is on the ground.  Your hip will slide down from that push-up as his hind hoof comes off the ground.  That is the moment, when his hind hoof comes off the ground, that you can influence that leg to swing more forward and under his center of gravity.  

In the trot, the horse's legs move in diagonal pairs with a moment of suspension between each step.  When you post on the outside foreleg, you stand as the outside foreleg goes forward and up.  That is the moment when the outside foreleg and the inside hind leg are in the air; the inside foreleg and outside hind are on the ground.  To make a good canter depart from the trot, you will need to feel the moment when the outside hind leg is coming off the ground and swinging forward.  If you send that leg well under the horse's body and ask for the canter as it lands, you will be well on your way to a beautiful transition.

In the canter, see if you can identify the four phases of the stride.  Perhaps the easiest to feel is when the leading foreleg lands and the horse's head goes down slightly.  See if you can begin to feel his outside hind swinging forward and stepping down--phase 1.  Then the diagonal pair, phase 2.  Then the leading foreleg, phase 3.  Then that moment of suspension, phase 4.

The more you concentrate on feeling the horse's footfalls, the more precise the timing of your aids will become.  And the better your timing becomes the more balanced, through, and beautiful your transitions will become.  Have a wonderful ride!

Riding Shoulder-In

One of my students recently asked me to explain the aids for shoulder-in. She especially was concerned about where she should keep her weight to help her horse balance.  

The shoulder-in is one of the most useful and important exercises in classical training. It helps the rider teach the horse how to bend the joints in his inside hind leg and step under his center of gravity.  It is an indispensable exercise in teaching the horse to carry more weight on his haunches.

When I am thinking about shoulder-in for a horse, I like to make sure the horse has the preliminary understandings in place for performing shoulder-in:  the forward-down stretch that ensures the horse will reach to the bit and raise his back when asked by the rider, the lateral flexion in the poll and release in the jaw that is preliminary to proper bending, and the ability to displace the rib cage slightly to the outside and create a steady bend to the inside when cued by the rider.  Then, I want to be sure I can leg yield my horse's hind leg toward my outside rein while maintaining a stretch to the bit and enough bend to feel the connection between the inside hind leg and the outside rein.  The last piece you need is a decent half-halt.  Your horse should understand how to come back a bit in response to your upper body stretching up and holding for a split second while your hands stabilize.  Once you have these pieces in place, you are ready for the shoulder-in.

When performing the shoulder-in, the inside hind leg and the outside foreleg align on one track.  This alignment is established by placing the forehand of the horse to the inside of the track.  One good way to teach this is to use a ten-meter circle.  The bend and balance on the ten meter circle is what you need for the shoulder-in, so it is a good check to ride your horse in walk or trot around the arena and ride a ten meter circle at R, S, V, and P.  Make sure you can keep a consistent bend all the way around each circle and maintain a good balance. 

When you are sure you have the balance in your ten meter circles well established, try a few steps of shoulder-in as you return to the track from one of your circles.  Allow your horse to take a step onto the ten meter circle line as if you were going to ride the circle again.  Then look down the track, use your inside leg to swing the horse in rhythm with his gait, and go straight down the track but with his forehand one step to the inside of the track and maintaining the bend of your ten meter circle.  Sit in the middle of your horse in order to help maintain the bend and also to support his movement down the track.   In the French school one sits in the direction of movement, and in the German school one sits over the inside seat bone to establish the bend.  Thank goodness Arthur Kottas of the Spanish Riding School strikes a happy medium by advising us to sit in the middle of the horse's back in the shoulder-in.  I have found this to be an efficient place from which to influence the horse's movement, bend, and balance.

What you would like to feel is that you have your horse connected from your swinging inside leg to your outside elastic elbow and hand.  Help your horse balance and find the right amount of bend with your elastic outside connection back into your soft, heavy elbow.  Orient your sternum in the direction you want the shoulders of your horse to turn (to the inside of the line you are riding on).  Allow your hips to stay straight to the line of travel (straight down the track).  Keep your inside leg close to the girth to help your horse bend, and pulse energy through your horse's rib cage in the direction of the outside bit ring in time with his swinging inside hind leg. Your outside leg will be more or less passive depending on whether your horse needs support to keep his haunches from swinging to the outside.  If he wants to lose his bend by pushing his haunches out, you will need to use your outside leg behind the girth to remind him to stay curved around your inside seat bone and leg.

A horse must "sit" a bit in his hind leg joints in order to perform shoulder-in.  This is a lot of strain on a horse that is new to this type of movement, so be judicious in your requests early on.  Refresh your horse by riding out of the shoulder-in into a forward trot on a straight line or stretch on a circle line.  The engagement required for a line of shoulder-in will develop best when done a few steps at a time.  

The shoulder-in is the classical exercise for teaching a horse to bend his hind legs in preparation for collection.  Remember to use your half halt by closing your thighs, flexing your collar bone up and steadying your hands momentarily, then releasing to allow your horse to find his balance in a more upright posture in which he carries more weight on his haunches. By bending the joints of one leg at a time (the inside hind), the shoulder-in prepares the horse's musculature for the work of collection and helps the rider establish the aids for creating engagement  or carrying power (the flexion of the hind leg joints that is the prerequisite for impulsion).  Each horse is different in what he requires to learn this skill, but in general, make sure you keep sufficient energy so that the horse's back can swing, and keep the poll at or near the highest point.

Happy riding, and enjoy training this wonderful exercise.

Help! My horse doesn't respond to the bit!

A student wrote to me recently:

Hi, I was wondering if you would have any suggestions on a bit for Jo. I have been using a sweet-iron snaffle bit for dressage and I have a curb bit that I use for my English pleasure classes that he works very well in. I was wondering if you knew of any snaffle bits that you think he would work well in because I have tried just a basic O-ring snaffle and he will not respond to it a lot of times. I am only allowed to have a snaffle bit but not a French link snaffle or anything like that so I was wondering if you had any recommendations.

Great question!  This is my answer:
As you might suspect, the solution to a horse that is ignoring the bit is not necessarily a stronger bit, but the rider developing the understanding and skill to ride the horse correctly through his body.  It is important to create a good conversation with your horse through your aids, one that invites him to pay better attention to you. 

Frequent transitions, if they are correctly done, will help your horse focus more on your aids and prevent him becoming bored and tuning you out.  When you find that your horse is dull to your hand, it is an indication that you need to put more attention on your ride.  Teach him to be more responsive to all your aids.  Your weight aids are the most important to creating responsiveness in your hand.  Try riding some obstacle patterns set up with cavelleti, ground poles, barrels, etc.  Use your body first before going to your hand.  Pretend you are an Indian who is hunting buffalo from horseback.  You need both hands to shoot, and you must be able to steer your horse with your knees and weight.  Be sure to sit in balance, left to right, and sit tall—no leaning forward or backward.  Also, school some transitions with him.  I like to use walk-trot transitions in my warm up to get my horse thinking about my aids.  After you walk on a long rein for a few minutes, take him for a brisk trot.  Then begin asking for 10 steps of walk in between short sets of trot.  Focus on your half-halt aids in the down transition and make sure your aids are clear in the up transition.  Look for each transition to improve as you both warm up.  

Your horse must be straight to the line he is traveling on in order to be light in your hand.  Since few horses are naturally straight and balanced, you must learn to straighten your horse.  This means that first you need to feel when and how he is crooked.  If he always drops his shoulders to the right and his haunches to the left, then you must work to move his shoulders back to the left in front of his haunches, especially when turning left.  Try riding on some straight lines and see if you can feel which parts of your horse are not in alignment.  Use your pulsing aids (don’t try to hold him in place) (knees, calves, rein) to encourage him to stay in better alignment.

As for bits, you might try something like this Baucher cheek snaffle, which is legal for dressage and eventing :

http://www.toklat.com/Products/BP/89-41025. 

Many horses like the center roller in the Myler bits and Myler has a very helpful website that tells you which bits are legal for dressage and eventing.  Just click on the “i” symbol next to the bit name. But always be sure to double check with your rule book before you buy a bit to make sure it is legal in your discipline.  

http://www.toklat.com/Products/Brand/Myler/125/Dressage_Legal_Bits.

This is not to say that you have to buy a Myler bit to solve your issues.  But it is a good resource to figure out what bits are legal to use.

Have fun riding and I hope to see you soon!

Training Level Tips--First Show!

A student wrote to me recently saying:

I hope you don't mind if I bounce a few questions  off of you.  I will be showing Blue in training level next weekend.  I feel we have really made some improvements in our walk and trot.  Well, you've seen us, I feel pretty comfortable with that.  

Question 1.  Bend- I struggle with this.  What should my seat, legs and hands be doing to create the correct bend?  I think I have it, but I'm worried I'm asking more with my hands than my seat.  I know that's a tough question, but it seems to be a pivotal point in the training level.

Question 2.  Canter!  We do not have the canter nailed down, we're getting better.  I know he will be hollow and slightly off balance.  What can I do to at least make it decent?  What do you expect for a training level horse?  I know that's a tough question.

Good questions!  And I love it that she is thinking so much and preparing so thoroughly for her tests.  Here are my answers:

Hey!  What fun! So, for bend: first sit straight and square with your seat bones centered on each side of his spine.  As you start your curved line, turn your shoulders, without leaning, in the direction of travel.  Keep both seat bones down on the horse and let your body twist through your torso like a barber pole turning.  Your shoulders should be on the angle you want his shoulders to be on and your hips the same angle you want his hips on.  

Be careful not to let your seat slide to the outside, as that is the natural tendency when turning on a circle.  Stay over your inside seat bone and leg by imagining you are about to dismount on that side.  Use your inside calf to give him a post to bend around.  Use your outside thigh to help his outside shoulder come around the turn.  Use your outside calf to make sure his haunches don't swing out.  Rotate your inside hand so that the fingernails are skyward and open it towards your knee to the degree you need to to create a hollow along the inside of his neck, but without disconnecting his neck where it joins his shoulders.  In other words bend, don't break!  Stay supple and keep a bend in your elbows.  The elastic outside rein allows the bend but supports his frame so that he doesn't pop his outside shoulder.  When you have his body so that it matches the line he is traveling on, he will feel light and balanced.

For the canter, your seat should stay in the asymmetrical position that slightly lightens and turns out your inside knee.  Let both legs breathe in rhythm with the canter motion--no clamping, but the inside leg is a little in front of the outside leg.  Keep suppling the inside rein so he doesn't get stiff.  Imagine that you are riding him in leg yield to the outside of the circle, i.e., inside leg to elastic outside rein.  And remember that the canter strides begin with the outside hind leg stepping down and supporting the horse all on its own, so make sure you give a little nudge-hold-and-release behind the girth each stride if he feels hesitant.  Sit tall and allow the canter motion to come through his body.

A good exercise to improve suppleness and jump at the canter is to pick up the canter approaching the short end, then turn down the second quarter line and, as you ride with his nose pointed straight down the arena, leg yield him to the track.  You are leg yielding away from the lead he is on.  Keep him flexed slightly toward the lead, and ask him to jump forward and away from your inside leg until he is at the track.  Keep the forward as well as the sideways movement by using your outside leg when needed.

At training level, we are looking for a horse flowing freely forward in a level balance and accepting a quiet contact with the bit.  Suppleness and responsiveness to the rider's aids are developing, and it's nice to see the horse fairly straight to the line he is traveling on, bent in turns and on circles and straight on straight lines.  

What we do not want to see is a horse badly out of balance and/or not moving forward with commitment.  Nor should he be running.  The rider should not be stopping the forward flow by trying to collect the horse (or keeping her balance on the reins).  I want to see a harmonious picture of the horse and rider, in balance, connected, and flowing throughout the test.  That tells me that the basics skills are developing nicely and the training is correct.

Have fun and good luck!