"Big Trot"

[Lucy Chaplin Trumbull <elsie@calweb.com>]

Angela C. McGhee wrote:
> 
> ...When Kaboot is in competition and hits his BIG TROT 
> (which doesn't exist at home) I have to ride with my 
> stirrups about an inch shorter...then it's just right.  
> Just need to be in the air a little longer.

I recently discovered this "big trot" on Provo - took
me a while to work out what was going on, one minute
we'd be trotting normally, then the next, the tempo of 
the trot slowed down, but we were covering ground faster
and smoother, with a moment of suspension. It feels
great.

At the moment, he can only keep it up for a maximum of
about six strides, if that. He starts to do it just
before he thinks he's going into a canter - and therefore,
either does start to canter, curtailing it, or drops back
to his "working" shorter strided trot. He does it mostly
when he feels like he's being pushed - i.e. we're riding
with another horse (or Patrick on the bicycle) that he's
worried he can't keep up with.

I'm guessing, at this point, that he doesn't have the
conditioning or the muscles to carry this big trot for
long. To get him to sustain it longer, I wondered about
not letting him go into a canter, to encourage him to
stay with it (although I think he'd probably just drop
back into the working trot), but decided that was unfair - 
presumably he goes into the canter because it isn't 
economical for his body to continue trotting in that 
way.

So then I wondered - if he was conditioned/trained to do
this trot better, for longer, would it become a more
economical gait for him to use, rather than cantering?

At the moment, he mostly likes to canter - and will
do a nice canter that keeps up with everyone else's
trot.

Just wondering...
-- 
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Lucy Chaplin Trumbull - elsie@calweb.com
Repotted english person in Sacramento, CA 
http://www.calweb.com/~elsie

with Mouse and Provo
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