 |
Re: [RC] Newbie gait ? - desertrydr1Late as usual in getting to my mail, sorry. The first thing you need to know in determining which gait is easier on a horse under saddle is to know which gait he prefers. Some horses are trotters and some horses are gallopers/canterers by choice. If you watch a bunch of horses turned out together, you may notice that some trot more than gallop and some horses are the opposite.I have an Arab mare, her Anglo-Arab daughter and the Anglo's half-Shagya yearling colt. The Arab prefers to canter, has since I got her, including her under saddle time. The Anglo I've had from birth. She definitely prefers the trot, and has a wonderful trot, even under saddle. The 1/2 Shagya Arabian colt prefered the gallop since he was three days old in his first outing. I also have two full purebred Shagya fillies that are full sisters. One prefers the trot andthe other prefers the gallopcanter. Of mine, the only real difference I can see is that the trotters sem to be built more uphill than the gallopers, But with the exception of the old Arab mare, that I got when she was already 5 1/2, the rest I have seen since birth or at least since they were 9 months old (the Shagya Arabian fillies). It hasn't seemed to matter what their growth stage was, whether they were physically up or downhill at the time. There are other differences in conformation of course, but none of them are super identical in their build. Some other people on here can probably give the conformational aspects of a trotter versus a galloper One way you can assess horses under saddle is to use a heart rate monitor. You can go at various speeds at both a trot and a gallop, and observe what the heart rate does. At what speed does it drop going from trot to canter. That would be one way of assesssing when the body is working harder. Another way is to go out with another rider, one that you regularly ride with, so the horses are used to each other. If you just let them pick their own gaits, does one usually canter to keep up with the other's trot? Or Does one lope along effortlessly while the other is equally at ease in the trot? Do you have certain horses that you keep the same gait at the same pace and other horses your horse just can't seem to stay in sync with? Maybe they are at different levels of conditioning. But then again, maybe they have different gait preferences that make them less compatible as trail mates. Even though some "experts" will tell you that such-and-such si a trotting breed or so-and-so is a galloping bloodline, there are still individuals in most breeds that have characteristics not usually observed in the fill-in-the-blank. jeri
|