I am training a 3 year old.  I can walk and trot on her, she stops on a dime, but the problem I am having is her canter.  When I ask for it she bolts and gets under herself.  The good part is that she stops when I ask her!  Has anyone else ever had this problem? 

She is probably just unbalanced and it makes her nervous and the flight instict kicks in.  How long has she been undersaddle?  Pheo has been undersaddle around six months and I still dont canter him very often and when I do we warm up with lots of walk and trot first.

 Give her time to matue and figure out where her legs are. My mare is 3 and she has been in training for about 5 months. We are just now getting a decent trot on her where she is finding her own rhythm and isn't over stepping. She is finally finding her natural balance. I couldn't even imagine cantering right now. Get your walk/trot down 110%, then ask her to canter. That way she will have the confidence and the strength to maintain a descent canter with a rider where she isn't just running with you on her back. She's young, give her a little more time to mature.  Have fun. Young horses are a blast.

Each horse is different, and at 3, yours is still growing and maturing. Her proprioception (ability to know where her feet and other body parts are and what they are all doing at any given time) is still developing.

That being said, I agree with the previous posters about taking it easy. Do lots of walk and trot, work on your transitions without drilling your horse and try to build in some hill work at the walk to help strengthen her back end. When your transitions are smooth and she is confidently balancing around circles at the trot without dropping her shoulder or hollowing her back, you can start asking for the canter along a straight line, but only a few strides at a time.

 For example, walk ten strides, trot 5 strides, canter 3 strides down the long side and come back to a walk or trot. Remember to support your mare in the transition so she doesn't nosedive into the walk/trot. You can then start to build the number of canter strides slowly over time. Once she is confidently cantering the long side of the arena, you can start to work on helping her learn to balance through the corner.

Again, just take it slow so your mare has a chance to build her confidence, balance, and musculature the RIGHT way, and you should have years of enjoyment out of her at all gaits.

 

Good luck!!

How large of an area are you working her in? I had some issues with speed with my now 4 year old last fall - he was wanting to rush the canter. He needed time to figure out balance. I did a lot of serpentines with him at a trot, built up his balance and muscles - I also did some hill work. I'm of the mindset when asking for a lope - if they're rushing and unbalanced, don't stop them again immediately. Let them lope on and try to find their balance with a rider. Sometimes it's a lot easier in a nice straight open spot to ask for a lope - especially on the young horses. I had some trouble with mine and being soft through the bit - so when I asked the first few times, I asked on a slight hill - I'd ask for a lope, stay off the face, and let him move forward finding his own balance.

Take an objective look at your own balance too... are you helping or hindering the horse when you ask.

 

 

 Thank you all for the very helpful advice and information!  She is the first horse I am training on my own (well, with guidance from a couple of knowledgeable horsewomen).  Everything has been going so well with her that I guess I was expecting everything to go as smoothly, being impatient I guess! 

I have only been riding her in the round-pen.  Would it be better if I worked with her in the arena?

 

I'm starting my Lusitano filly this season, and the first canter we did was in the round pen. I only asked for a few strides, and she had no trouble handling the size or the ROUNDNESS of the round pen. But she's also very short-coupled and pretty balanced for a youngster. She, however, is 4, and your horse is 3. I suspect that if I'd tried to start my filly at 3 I would have had much more difficulty. The natural horsemanship trainers I know advise waiting until a horse is 4 before starting them. Since you've already started your horse at 3, give her time to find herself, she's still a baby. I agree with those who said to wait until her walk and trot are PERFECT before you try a canter. She's just not ready to rush into things. Actually, that's a poor choice of words b/c she's rushing into things on her own. The rushing is due to being imbalanced, not the type of arena you're using. If you're losing your own balance, what do YOU do? You run faster, right? Same with the horse. Let her gain her balance, and give her the time she needs to do that.