For those of you who have many miles on gaited horses, what is the preferred gait of the horse over the majority of the distance? Do you think there would be a difference between LD and Endurance distances?
I am asking this since I have heard many gaited breeders touting their horses as perfect for endurance because they have a strong extended gait that covers more ground. If the horse chooses not to gait because it is too demanding, does that throw that ground covering rack, largo, running walk, etc out the window? What about the tighter gaited horses. If you were going for a gaited horse would you choose based on build, stamina and personality or would you go more for a bigger range of gait?
OK, back to coffee.
Mel
From: 5sus@xxxxxxx CC: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: RE: [RC] Heavy Riders Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2008 23:30:04 -0500
> First - and this probably won't be popular - I'm not sure there any > horse out there except maybe Remington that can gait 100 miles and I > think he trotted a good bit
Remington uses mostly only trot. The tolt is a very demanding gait. It has a one foot push off which means one foot is pushing up all the weight at each stride. Not efficient for long miles. Icelandics are supposed to have good trots, unlike many gaited breeds.
Susan Cushing
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