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[RC] gaiteds, collection and trotting - Dana B.
Maybe you mean right-side up, and not upside-down? :-) I'm referring to an article specifically written by Lee Ziegler for gaited horses about collection. See http://members.aol.com/mfthorses/upsidelz.htm (BTW it describes a number of Arabs I know, including my own at times). Lee has a number of excellent articles about gaited horses on her site. Lee and other gaited horse clinicians strongly believe that most if not all soft gaits require the horse to be upside-down to a certain degree, and thus they strongly discourage keeping a horse in gait for long periods of time. For instance, when doing the Paso Fino gaits (various forms of the rack) there is no way the horse can be in 'true' collection (or bascule, as Dr. Deb would say). I have extremely well gaited Paso Finos. They hit the ground gaiting at birth, and they will gait like fools with total novices on their backs. That said, on the trail they will do a variety of gaits, and one of my signals that they are getting tired is that they will become trotty. Do I force them to gait at that point, just because they can or because I'm afraid they will "forget" how to gait: absolutely not! I take that as a signal like any other. Frequently after a period of trotting they will 'refresh' and resume gaiting all on their own. I can't speak for other breeds, but you bet I let my Pasos trot if they feel like they need to - that's part of my job in putting the horse first. JMO Dana ddbpaso@xxxxxxxxx ************************************ Do you Yahoo!? |