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Canter/gallop(unfinished).

Gallop.
Breki from Skörðugil. The canter/gallop is a three-beat gait with a moment of suspension. In the Icelandic horse-language canter and gallop is counted as a single gait.

Canter.
Fengur from Hvol.

If the horse paces when you want to canter.
First of all, if you haven't practised letting your horse trot, you'd better get your to trot. Asking a 5-gaited horse to canter from tolt, will often make it tend to flatten out to pace, and if it canters from pace, it will cross-canter.
Then ask for canter from the trot, that might be enough to help it.

If the goes into pace from canter, letting it go in faster canter/gallop, will help it get a balance in the canter. Often the 5-gaiter simply can't handle the slow canter without learning it and getting balance in it first. As time passes, and the horse is doing a nice fast canter without dropping into pace, start asking it for slower canter.

Then ask it for as slow canter as it can handle without pacing, doing faster canter once in a while.

This way, the horse will learn, as time passes, what you are asking of it, and
also learn to keep it's balance in the slow canter, without gliding into pace.

When slowing the horse down after the canter, try to let it as soon as possible
do something else than pace, let it slow down to walk, tolt or (best) trot.

If you know the difference between right and left lead on the canter,
notice which lead the horse prefers. If it for example prefers the right lead,
shorten the left rein and encourage it forward with the right foot, when
you ask it for canter. That will help it start to canter, as you are helping the horse use the lead it prefers. Sometimes it's even nessesary to do a turn, in this case you'd be riding on the right side of the road, then turning to the other side of the road, encourage with the right foot, and speeding up to gallop (at the same time taking care that the horse doesn't think it is supposed to gallop out of the road).

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