Home Current News News Archive Shop/Advertise Ridecamp Classified Events Learn/AERC
Endurance.Net Home Ridecamp Archives
ridecamp@endurance.net
[Archives Index]   [Date Index]   [Thread Index]   [Author Index]   [Subject Index]

Re: [RC] tailgating - Diane Trefethen

There are lots of things horses do naturally that we humans don't like - buck, 
rear,
nip, bite, kick, lie down in water.  When we teach them not to do these things, 
they
don't forget HOW to do them, they just learn that they can't do them when they 
are in
hand or under saddle.

The worries about ruining a great "power walk", solely by teaching your horse 
to rate
his stride, are to a large extent unfounded.  Most horses who have a naturally 
big
stride will not change their way of going because they are TRAINED to add to 
their
repertoire a short and/or a medium stride.  Consider a dressage horse that has 
been
taught to piaffe which is virtually a trot in place.  Will such a horse no 
longer
move forward when asked to trot?  Will his extended trot be ruined?  Not hardly 
:)

I think the reason we fear "losing" the big walk is that we've all ridden 
horses that
you have to push and push to get any decent forward motion out of or that we've 
had
to train to use a decent walk on the trail.  The lesson we take away from that
experience is, "I better watch out or my big-walking horse will learn to crawl 
along
like that snail I rode 10 years ago".  But those slow pokes were doing their 
natural
walk and had to be trained to open up and use themselves better.  A horse whose 
walk
is naturally strong does not have to be TRAINED to walk big but the they do 
need to
be trained if you want to be able to rate them.

I am not saying that if you ALWAYS asked your horse to crawl that he couldn't 
learn
to crawl along as his default walk under saddle.  I AM saying that training your
horse how to rate himself will not cause him to "lose" his big walk any more 
than
training a barrel horse to lope will ruin his racing career.



=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Replies
[RC] tailgating, Jonni