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[RC] Safest at the Trot??? - k s swigartDuncan said: One of the reasons we riders feel safer when riding at trot, when compared to riding at canter, is due to our neurological wiring. Humans evolved with a two-beat locomotory pattern, either walking or running. Our horses are much more complex with two, three and four-beat locomotory patterns. It is the two beat rhythm of the trot that meshes most easily with our own evolved locomotory patterns. We also find it easiest to establish rhythm in two-beat patterns. I find this statement to extremely odd. As a riding instructor, I can unequivocably tell you that few if any riders feel safer riding at the trot than any of the other gaits. They feel safest at the walk (a four beat gait), and the only thing they find unsafe about the canter (a three beat gait) is the speed, not the rhythm. Consequently, I have found that riders feel safest on horses that don't trot at all (i.e. gaited horses). While trotting horses (or pacers, which most riders find even more disquieting) have a two-beat gait that is neurologically the same as our own, it is, in fact, the two beat gaits that riders have the most trouble maintaining a rhythm that matches the horse's. It is the bounciness of the trot that makes riders feel insecure. It might be a two beat bounce with a bunch of vertical forces. In the walk there is no bounce and in the canter the forces are more front to back rather than up and down. Is there ANYBODY out there who, when learning to ride, thought "yep, the trot is the easiest for me to get in rhythm with?" I have taught a lot of people to ride, and not a one of them has ever said that. kat Orange County, Calif. :) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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