my horse will walk trot and halt but refuses to canter. Ive even tried tying a plastic bag to lounge whip but shes super despooked so its no help. She just trots faster. it is an outdoor arena thats snowy but she still should listen to me. i have no round pen.
I had a horse like this and I took him to a Mexican trainer and within 5secs he was cantering. Haha. No idea how he did it. It was probably magic, haha.
what I learned is that when they are breaking the horse in the trainer would bend down like in a froggy position lol like the trainer is going to get the whip, and when I do that my horse canters. if not use a whip, not hitting the horse just hit the ground so it makes that cracking sound.
If they footing is safe, she should do it. I move in a small circle myself, so I can move faster and use that, together with "canter" as cues. I sometimes need to use the whip, too, to encourage the change of gait while the horse is learning depending on the horse.
some horses are just lazy so its not unusual, it helps if you lounge her on a short line so she cant get away from you, dont whip her but just keep cueing for her to canter untill you get her to do it, the 2 year old im working with hates lounging and tries to turn his butt away from so he doesnt have to work so as of late im lounging him on a shorter line and i keep twirling the whip behind him and i dont let him stop untill her canters several circles then i stop him and praise him so he knows thats all i wanted.