Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I have a horse like that! And you are right, after riding a horse that flies down the trail at a good trot, it feels like we are crawling..
But, he is half QH, so I think that is some of it... However, we worked and worked on the longer strides and getting him to develop a good ground covering trot.
At first, when he finally 'found' it, it made his back sore, so I backed off of it and just urged him to it at short intervals until he got conditioned for it.  He attitude determines how big his trot is or if he thinks he needs to canter... But he has improved so much that I can say to you that your horse probably can do it too.
I don't mind cantering though, if the trails allow for it. It gives us both a break from the constant trotting.
Good luck!

Janice


In a message dated 11/20/2006 10:47:11 AM Eastern Standard Time, iluvdez@xxxxxxxxx writes: 
> My endurance prospect trots slow and I'm picturing us
> out on the trail forever. So, some questions for you
> guys to see if I should be concerned or accept him the
> way he is. : - ) He prefers to trot about 7 - 7.5 mph
> and it feels like snails could pass us! If I ask for
> any faster, he would rather canter. This is very
> different for me because my retired distance horse
> happily trotted 9 - 10 mph and didn't like cantering
> at all (he's the type of horse who would continue to
> trot and still keep up with a cantering horse).
> Needless to say, I think he cantered about 100 yards
> total in over 1000 NATRC/LD miles. So I'm curious,
> those of you who finish at the back of the pack, how
> fast does your horse trot? Do you canter much at all?
> I'm wondering if I should just leave him alone or work
> on speeding up his trot. I haven't done any heart rate
> monitoring yet to see at what speed he's most
> proficient - who wants to put money on 7 mph? 
> ; - )