When my walking horse mare got into ther "standardbred" trot you could
literally feel the angle of the back change. I was so dramatic it felt
like her front end was off the ground. And she would fly in it.
I'm very interested in someone explaining the pros and cons of a horse
going wide behind.
You can feel horses with this sort of trot literally "shift gears" when
the trot becomes this long--their backs actually drop (not in a
hollowed-back sense--the whole body becomes lower) as those abductor
muscles kick in and the trot lengthens.
Any Standardbred worth his salt trots this way quite readily--if you ever
have the opportunity to sit behind one in a sulky, it is quite a sight.
Given a fit horse that is doing this for all the right reasons, I consider
it a very desirable characteristic--certainly not a fault!
Heidi
