Re: RC: Extended Trot

[tina hicks <tina@liveonthenet.com>]

I don't think the point is whether we trot or we canter- rather it's to
do the most efficient gait for your horse for that terrain.

How do you know that? In most cases, as you put the miles away in
training your horse will tell you whether he prefers one or the other
and it may change as training progresses - so that in the earlier LSD
years trotting may be the gait of choice but later the horse is more
comfortable covering ground at a canter.

Tina

Bette Lamore wrote:
> 
> Dear Heather
> I realize now I must have used the wrong "label." Donna said that he has
> a terrific stride and asked if I had ever measured it. At a trot, free
> in pasture, his front legs extend beyond his nose and yet he has
> incredible propulsion from the rear end (really evident on the tape).
> She said under saddle she noticed at a canter that his son started to
> "quail" a term she said was used in the Olympics and that she did not
> think Arabs could do (hence the reference to warmbloods). She explained
> that Quailing is when all four feet are off the ground and she said that
> Halyva Guy's feet were off for 1 and 2/3 body lengths. I thought their
> (Hal's and get) big trot would be called extended (she didn't use that
> word) because they "extended" so far out. When we showed hunter, a
> normal trot was just medium speed; the extended trot was just a faster,
> more ground covering trot. I can see that term has very different
> meaning in dressage (and endurance) circles. But I'm still getting that
> you like canter better than trot, and yet everyone who contacts me wants
> to see the trot and never asks about the canter. Why is that?
> Bette
>