> > > 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?
Hi,
I have an Icelandic with mostly LD miles and two 50 mile rides. We trot or canter during a ride. Going down hill he does a funky gaited "thing" that he has chosen and it obviously works for him and is pretty comfy, so it works for me too. I don't know what 'gait' it is, but it is definetely not tolt. He is 4 gaited, so he really is not supposed to pace, but on one ride, he started pacing towards the end of the ride. I put him back into canter, but I guess there is pace in there. Not the Flying Pace that is the correct 5th gait for Icys. As I stated yesterday, the tolt uses a lot of energy, so it would not be a wise gait to ride endurance with at either distance.
Susan Cushing and Lappi the hairy pony from the east >
