Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Bruce Weary wrote:

>    All good points, Joe. And you certainly have the experience to put 
> them forth. What I am reading so far are people offering exceptions to 
> what I have experienced as the more general rule of most travel being 
> done at a trot. Yes, it's true that a slow canter may be easier on the 
> horse than an exertional extended trot of the same speed. But most 
> rides aren't ridden or even won, at speeds over a 10 mile per hour 
> average.The winning pace of last year's 20 Mule Team 100 was 8.3 mph. 
> How much cantering does even the winner need to do if he won the ride 
> with that average traveling speed? Not many horses travel at 8 mph at 
> the canter. There are always exceptions, but I think the newbies who 
> asked the question should understand that the trot is the 
> overwhelmingly dominant gait used in this sport. And though some 
> horses can obviously tolerate the canter for many miles without 
> apparent problems, the trot is generally a safer gait for the horse 
> carrying a lesser experienced rider. It takes some real experience, 
> prudent training and, I think, a horse with certain biomechanical 
> attributes to travel at a canter for long distances without eventual 
> potential leg strain.  Dr Q, often wrong, but never in doubt.

Take a ride like the OD there are a lot of places you can't do much but 
walk so even to make a 15 hour ride time which is quite fast a rider 
needs to canter quite a bit. I think it has more to do with the horse 
than trail. I think it has more to do with the horse than anything else.

Truman


--

"Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what 
we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true."  - 
Bertrand Russell




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