Relaxing during the upward transition to canter can be a difficult thing for many riders to master. Couple the anxiety of the surge with a horse that anticipates a tense, uncomfortable rider and too often the result is a missed transition, a horse falling in or stopping, or even a rider falling.

But the canter transtion doesn't have to be uncomfortable! Anyone can learn to relax, supple their body, and ride the powerful surge of asking for a canter.

The best exercise to help a rider relax when asking for a canter is to ride on a lunge line. Ask your instructor or an experienced horse person to allow you to ride a well-behaved lesson horse on the lunge line. In this method, the trainer can control the horse while you ride and focus on your seat. With loose reins or no reins at all (and no grabbing for mane!) ride through as many transitions up and down as you can handle. Experience is the only way to relax and overcome anxiety over the canter transion. Repeating the unfamiliar, uncomfortable, and unseating action multiple times in a short period helps make it familier and expected, and trains your body how to respond and ride the movement of the canter.

Over time and practice you will eventually learn to relax while asking for and riding the canter, and as you relax, your horse will also. A relaxed horse will pick up the canter more fluidly, and as a result actually make the canter transition less intimidating to ride.