Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

 As a rider of foxtrotters as well as Arabs, I can see the benefits of both
sides regarding gaiting and trotting. I try to intermingle the gaits on my
foxtrotters on an endurance ride. If I don't, as they tire, they will do
it for me. I sort of think of it as "crosstraining" when they change gaits
and use different muscle groups. I think that gaited horses have a varying
"genetic dose" of the gaiting gene, and as such will gait to varying degrees.
To say that they are bred for it and that gives us the privilege to insist
that they always gait, I think narrows the scope of our understanding of
the horse. Thoroughbreds are bred to run 45 miles an hour. Not many riders
climb on and actually do that.  Draft horses are bred to pull heavy loads
and plow fields. The tractor changed all that. Arabs were bred to run like
hell across the desert without food or water, wait for their masters to pillage
some village, then run like hell back again. Heck, I haven't even been on
a good panty raid on my Arabs. Instead I use them to trot leisurely for distances
of up to 100 miles with as much food and water as they will consume. 
  I guess what I'm saying is that among the variety of things a horse
is capable of by virtue of his breeding or training, insisting that he 
only do one of those things just because he can, may
 unnecessarily limit his ability to perform optimally and, perhaps more importantly,
enjoy his work.
    I remain, Bruce Weary, often wrong, but never in doubt