How do I count canter strides?

A good exercise for practising counting canter strides is to count them between two poles. The horse takes one stride over the pole, and then you count the canter strides between the poles. If you find it difficult, ask someone on the ground to count out loud, so you get a feel for what a canter stride feels like.

For example, set two poles 20m apart. This is also a good exercise for learning to change the number of canter strides, in other words practising lengthening and shortening the canter.