There has been much discussion
about trotting, big trot, 'forcing the issue' - or horses' natural, ie.
preferred 'gait'. Posting to which
diagonal - thanks for explainations, never could figure out which one
I was on, did not make a difference - except, years ago when did some
shows; just tried to change 'posting' periodically' and Lyric
would try to throw me back where he was comfortable. ( and, no; he
was not 'one sided', was very agile, responsive, equally developed, but
his perferred side 'ruled'. - Must have been ok, he did 'several' /
many 50's, multi-days, etc. with me primarily on just the one
diagonal.? My other horse changes so much between trot and canter -
that it does not matter, except he is tiresome to ride sometime, but often let
him pick which gait suits him. One horse had a "big 'natural' trot",
and never could teach him to do the 'typical 3 beat ( tea -cup) canter';
the other horse has taken me years to develope his trot, (
just a good 'working' trot, not "big 'road' trot'') - he
is a horse that prefers to canter. I prefer a horse learn to trot - does not
need be a "big, extended trot", but JMHO - would prefer they equally load front
legs than travel 'alot' at canter, especially, up or down hill. Believe
they use front and backends! better that way. Other than their 'preferred
way of going', can tell by heart rates which horse does better at; ,
I used to ride with a monitor - always - training, and 'rides', and kept records
of speed, terrain, HR, recovery times. The one that preferred to trot,
even 'big extended trot' for miles, had lower heart rate at that, than at his
canter; unless it was later in a ride, or on second / third days.(
Once had a 'well known endurance vet' tell me that it took about 20
miles to really 'warm up' these horses' muscles for work, ?? - my
findings seemed to support that, except times. I found he was 'lacking in
fluid intake' - HR - were then higher) But, then that was a horse that did
more of a hand gallop, than canter, he never seemed learn to canter.
then there were times I could not push him up to anaerobic rates - yes,
sometimes - believe to push up and let them come back down, can help.
Different energy conversion pathways. But that's another
discussion. The other horse travels at lower heart rate at the
canter, til he developed - learned to - trot, now HR about
equal. But, generally, he will run lower HR at canter, than trot, til later
in ride. In other words, quess you just need to know your horse(s). and
their 'normals'. Train and plan accordingly. realizing some will do
better cantering most of ride, others trotting, and probably
better, - those that 'can mix it up' / travel efficiently at both
trot and canter/ hand gallop to use other muscle groups . Stephanie
M
