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Help your horse master cantering through water confidently with advice from Olympic riders turned top coaches

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P8GJKG Zernikov, woman riding a horse galloping through a lake

Many horses are wary of water, to the extent that they lose all momentum, dropping back to trot or even walk rather than cantering through. For an eventer, this makes negotiating any obstacles positioned before, after or in the water extremely tricky. Watch top riders and their established horses negotiate a water crossing and they will barely break their stride. But how do you teach horse who is wary of getting his feet wet to keep up the forward momentum and stay in canter?

The first stage to unpicking the issue is understanding why it happens in the first place. British eventing performance coach Chris Bartle and Olympian Nicola Wilson explain where to start when it comes cantering through water with confidence.

How to train your horse to canter through water

“Think about a row of children lined up on the edge of a swimming pool,” says former Badminton winner and European team gold medallist Chris Bartle. “Some will jump straight in without a moment’s hesitation, while others will linger on the edge and carefully lower themselves in. It’s the same with horses. Some will be more cautious than others. That doesn’t mean the cautious ones won’t be happy to leap in eventually, but it will take time.”

Training a horse to canter through water, travelling forward, is a process built on confidence and trust. It is not simply a case of kicking harder.

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