My horse Kahlil Khai is in the AERC Hall of Fame with 11,475 miles
completed, over 10,000 miles of that Top Ten with numerous first
places, Best Conditions, and Regional and National Championships (he
won the first ever National Best Condition Championship, and won a
National 100 Mile Championship). So I guess we qualify.
Early in our career I tried to make him trot when he wanted to canter,
especially if the horses around us were trotting. He is a small horse
(barely 14.2 with shoes) and I soon discovered we were better off
cantering when he wanted to canter. He would outlast the trotting
horses.
What I learned was that a trot is not always less tiring than a
canter. As speed increases you reach a point where the canter is less
tiring (at that speed). This speed is different for each individual
horse, different terrain, and different amount of fatigue. In my
opinion it is impossible for the rider to always know which gait is
best for a given speed. If you have a good, trail-wise horse the
horse will know best.
The issue is different with a green horse, who may want to canter
rather than trot just from excitement.
Note that the *rider* should *always* choose the speed if the horse is
trying to go faster than he should. Once that speed is set, though, I
believe that in most (not all) cases the horse will be better off if
he chooses his own gait. As the horse gains experience this will
become more true.
Kahlil would change down from a canter to a trot if the footing
changed to something not to his liking. He clearly felt he could
better place his feet at the trot, so I never tried to force him to
stay in a canter under those conditions.
Another issue is choosing the path through rough terrain. Although
Kahlil was generally good at picking his way in rough stuff, like most
horses he didn't plan ahead. He wouldn't see that the "easy" path he
was choosing ran into a washout fifty feet ahead. So I had to plan
ahead for him and overrule his choice when necessary. After a while
this got to be almost telepathy.
I may have more to say on this in a day or two -- it's past midnight
and I've got to call it a night.
--Joe Long jlong@hiwaay.net http://fly.hiwaay.net/~jlong/home.shtml