Going wide is okay for a grown-up trotting horse, but bad
for a baby? Just asking, because I just saw my weanling (the son of the
horse I first mentioned as going wide behind) go wide behind when trotting up
the hill (not a steep grade) to the barn from his pasture. The weanling
tries to stay ahead of his pasture mate (a pony-sized Anglo) at the trot, but
eventually has to canter to stay out of the way of the teeth coming for his
rump. During this nightly ritual, I saw him trot wide. That would
be because he doesn’t have the back strength to lift his front while
going up hill at speed?
The horse of mine that does go wide is unfortunately now a
pasture potato, since I have a few too many to ride each one. His
movement is low, almost too low to be a competitive dressage horse (generally
only getting 6’s on his trot but gets 8-9’s on his walk). He
still occassionaly gives a big wide-behind trot in pasture, when showing off
for the ladies (he’s still intact). Under saddle he goes from a
perfect western pleasure jog, through true working trot, and eventually up to
this big wide-behind trot, but was never schooled on true extensions (We only
hit training level when I stopped riding him), and never offered a show ring
extended trot on his own. He’s not what I would ever call a big
pony. Very petite (14.1), slender, and dainty. Probably weighs in
at 750, is not wide in the barrel at all. The smallest pony I have.
The dressage trainers made their comments when he was still in training, say
about a 3.5-4 yo. He’s gained in maturity, muscling, and some
masculinity since then, but is basically built the same. Like I said,
just slender and dainty. I’d like to start him in distance training,
see if that big trot could be developed into a consistent thing, but will
probably have to wait until 1) he’s gelded as I don’t think I’d
be comfortable taking him camping otherwise, 2) I sell my current project pony and
3) I have to semi-retire my mare for her foaling. So many horses, so
little time!
