>Is pacing more comfortable, and what about the relative stresses
>put on the horses? Also how do speeds compare, and finally can
>a non-pacing horse actually be taught to pace at all?
Pacing is very comfortablet o ride if you don't mind the side to side
sway. If you've ridden a camel, and get seasick with the sway don't ride
a pacing horse at speed.<g> I don't know about stresses, will ask my vet
about it next month.
Pacing is faster, that's why racing trotters don't compete w/ racing
pacers and why the pacing speeds are faster.
It's fairly welll proven that horses must genetically inherit the ability
to pace. The way I've seen it is that a horse whose braind isn't wired
for lateral gaits cannot learn to pace. If you have a horse who has the
ability you can train it by doing downhill work at a medium speed. Most
horses who can pace will do so when going downhill. Eventually you can
build up that it's an acceptable gait. That's also the way to get an
amble or broken pace from a horse thant can do that gait. You might also
try sidelining like they train racing pacers but I've never done that and
would be very cautious about having extra sidelines on a horse I was on
top of. Might be usefull for training a horse that you could pony though.
Oogie McGuire - oogiem@dsrtweyr.com
Weyr Associates - Multimedia and Web Authoring Services & Consulting
Desert Weyr - CMK Arabian horses & saddle mules for endurance and show
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