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Gaits of Gold Gaited Horse Community Messageboard > Brenda Imus Questions and Answers > 'Ask Brenda' > Getting him to gait all the time |
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Gaits of Gold Gaited Horse Community Messageboard > Brenda Imus Questions and Answers > 'Ask Brenda' > Getting him to gait all the time |
| Moderated by: Brenda Im | Page:   1 2 |
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| Getting him to gait all the time | Rate Topic |
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| Posted: Thu Mar 18th, 2010 01:04 pm |
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21st Post |
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TheBlaze G.O.G Community Member 
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It is so hard to slow down a horse headed home, isn't it? Sounds like you handled it perfectly. If I only have two directions to go (forwards or backwards) I will turn around and go back the way we came until they slow down and listen before turning back and heading for home. It's time consuming but worth the energy. I wish I had the side trails to use like you did! Maybe one day!
____________________ ~Tina Wishes are horses, and I fly! |
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| Posted: Thu Mar 18th, 2010 02:48 pm |
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22nd Post |
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sdlepal Ranch Hand 
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It sure is funny how some have to be prodded to get them going especially when we ride by ourselves. Then on the way home they find that gait we have been wanting all along! Lots of solo rides away from my husband's horse has really helped my horse. It took almost one summer but now at least he is willing .
____________________ Pam and Cowboy Casey |
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| Posted: Mon Mar 22nd, 2010 10:26 pm |
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23rd Post |
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Painted Horse G.O.G Community Member 
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Got my horses out for 4 of the last 7 days and they are starting to show a nice improvement in their gaits. We've focues on keeping them on basically level trails with good footing. Stayed away fromsteep hills, rocky trails and dead falls. Of course they are still learning to hold their gaits, and I expect it will take time to develop the muscle memory that will allow them to remain in the gait for extended distances. I'm not expecting them to be perfect over night. So now my questions moves to speed. I have a gelding that is 16HH maybe 16-1HH, I have two mares that are 14-3 and 15-0 h. The mares basicaly break into a hard trot or canter to keep up with my gelding. I'm usually riding the gelding ( because he is a spirited fellow) and my daughters or riding friends are on the mares. So I don't know the exact reason why. I suspect the mares just don't have a gaited gear that matches up with the geldings foxtrot. but it could be rider errors. My question: Is it unrealistic to expect the shorter mares to speed up enough to keep up with the longer legged gelding? Is that just a natural limitation of those two mares? I've seen 15 h horses that had more speed than my 16h horse. So I know shorter horses can equal or exceed his speed. But maybe these two mares are reaching their max speed. Or Maybe these mares are breaking into a hard gait becuase the riders don't have the touch required to ask them to extend their gait. Any thoughts? Here are a couple of friends on my mares yesterday.  Last edited on Mon Mar 22nd, 2010 10:33 pm by Painted Horse |
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| Posted: Mon Mar 22nd, 2010 10:55 pm |
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24th Post |
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liteshodwalkers G.O.G Community Member 
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Painted, This is just my personal opinion but it sounds like rider error. As soon as these shorter horses start to trot or canter they should be brought right back to a walk. If they exhibit a proper gait any other time they should continue to do so even with your longer legged gelding. I think with consistency and continued work they should be fine. Again, this is just my naive but honest opinion. bonnie
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| Posted: Tue Mar 23rd, 2010 12:17 am |
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25th Post |
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MountainHorseGal G.O.G Community Member 
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What a great question Painted Horse! By the way your horses look great on the trail. I have that same issue backwards. My young horse is taller and leggier than my friends shorter stockier horse but mine slower and often would like to canter to catch up which I discourage, he will gait when prompted instead of cantering but I feel he is maxing his speed and sometimes feel bad for him. I am looking forward to the responses you receive.
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| Posted: Tue Mar 23rd, 2010 01:56 am |
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26th Post |
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Painted Horse G.O.G Community Member
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My friends would slow the mares down to keep them in gait when ever they broke into a trot. Staying in foxtrot they would fall behind and the gap between them and my horse would increase. When the distance got great enough, the herd boundness would kick in and they would get excited and bounce around a little bit. As I call it, They cantalope. ( a gait where they want to canter, but where we hold them back and they bounce all over the place) And of course as the gap increased, my gelding would start looking around behind him and want to slow down. Which became my challenge to keep him up to speed even though his herd mates where falling behind.
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| Posted: Fri Mar 26th, 2010 08:23 am |
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27th Post |
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tmdeck G.O.G Community Member 
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i have this problem when i ride with my friend on her peruvian. she can gait faster than gypsy can canter. what i have been doing is holding gypsy in her gait because we will eventually catch up. sometimes she will break into the rack and fly with the peruvian but for the most part gypsy is lazy. i too would like to know how to increase speed in her gait.
____________________ tammy |
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| Posted: Fri Mar 26th, 2010 01:16 pm |
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28th Post |
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MTRA872 G.O.G Community Member
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Once you get the training and riding techniques down, the top speed your horse can gait is really a matter of conformation and genetics, and every horse is an individual. Your taller gelding may be able to always gait faster than the shorter mares, perhaps because he may have a longer stride that allows him to cover more ground with each step, perhaps because of the gentic way he is programmed to move his legs compared to the way the mares move, or perhaps a little of both. It would be nice if you could get someone familiar with gaited horses to ride the mares so you knew whether they were breaking gait because of rider error. Once rider error is ruled out, if you discover that their top speed is truly less than the gelding's, then you just need to slow your gelding down when you ride with the mares, or allow the mare to canter to keep up with the gelding. By far the biggest mistake I see people make with their gaited horses is trying to ride them too fast. When I first got into gaited horses 25 years ago, I worked with a gentleman who was, at the time, training champion lite shod horses. His first rule of thumb was never sacrifice form for speed, and his second rule of thumb was that God gave gaited horses the ability to canter for a reason, because sometimes you just need to go faster than that horse can gait.
____________________ "And on the Seventh Day...we went trail riding!" |
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| Posted: Fri Mar 26th, 2010 01:50 pm |
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29th Post |
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MountainHorseGal G.O.G Community Member
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Great advice, I don't know about others but I have let my gelding canter to catch up, not rushing but a nice canter, I don't like him cantaloping because I don't think thats a proper gait (my guess) I thought I was breaking rules allowing him canter to catch up, however it just made more sense to me instead of pushing him at the gait for long periods of time. Besides, I love cantering !;)
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| Posted: Fri Mar 26th, 2010 07:08 pm |
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30th Post |
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Painted Horse G.O.G Community Member
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I enjoy a good canter, and don't discourage the horses from cantering when the opportunity presents itself. I'm hoping this summer, I can trust my gelding enough to allow others to ride him, while I get on the mares and work with their gaits. He is a spirited horse and the past couple of summers, I've been fearfull of putting anything less than a proficient rider on his back. He is not a bad horse, Just not not a horse for novice riders.
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