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The fact that your left leg is ahead of  your right on a straight line 
may indicate an imbalance in your body or an imbalance in the horse that 
is transferring to you.  Your legs should be pretty much in the same 
position independent of the diagonal used at a trot. My guess is your 
are slightly "falling off" to the left side. Have someone ride behind 
you and tell you if your shoulders are even and level and if your butt 
is even and level. 

It is usually easier to teach canter departs in a circle. I would expect 
that this horse would have no problem picking up a canter in a 
counterclockwise circle, but he would have a very difficult time doing 
it in a clockwise circle (right leg inside the circle).

Truman

Don Huston wrote:

> Hello Libby,
>
> At 11:43 AM 1/2/2006 Monday, you wrote:
>
> > To get the canter lead you want from a trot every time is very 
> > simple. All
> > you have to do is weight your inside leg, move back your outside leg, 
> > open
> > your inside rein and half halt your outside rein just as the inside 
> > foreleg
> > is coming down. The "inside" being the lead you want. You may 
> > discover that
> > you have some body control issues, but keep practicing.   Libby
>
>
> Body control issues....now that's an understatement. =-O Here's what 
> I've been doing. I'm trotting down a long straight desert road posting 
> 1..2..1..2..weight legs..bump saddle. Always my left leg is ahead of 
> my right. I think that means we are on the right diagonal only because 
> if I bump him up to a canter he takes the left lead (Kat posted that's 
> how it works) and my legs remain left ahead, right behind and the 
> canter is fairly smooth. Now I try to change my legs at the trot. I 
> stay up for a while 1..1..1..1 and my legs just naturally stay left 
> ahead right behind. If I force the left behind and the right ahead I 
> feel awkward, the horse seems rougher and my legs keep trying to 
> revert back. If I try to post now with the right ahead and the left 
> behind my legs swing funny and I have to fight to keep in position. I 
> have actually checked my saddle, girth and stirrup positions to see if 
> the saddle is built crooked. :-D It's not. The horse seems to be 
> moving straight using a nice even stride so those diagonals must be 
> very slight. I know that if I tip his nose right and kick him from a 
> stop straight to the canter he jumps into the left lead. Same if I tip 
> left he jumps into the right lead but the right lead canter is rough 
> and I have been working on it about a year. Now we are at the whole 
> reason for this fuss I am making about diagonals. We mostly trot so it 
> appears that I am creating a one-sided horse because we are trotting 
> on the same diagonal all the time. How do I change diagonals at the 
> trot and if I succeed will I feel it in my leg position?
> Don Huston
>
>
>
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