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Re: [RC] [RC] Heavy Riders - Dawn Carrie<<For those of you who have many miles on gaited horses, what is the preferred gait of the horse over the majority of the distance? Do you think there would be a difference between LD and Endurance distances?
I am asking this since I have heard many gaited breeders touting their horses as perfect for endurance because they have a strong extended gait that covers more ground. If the horse chooses not to gait because it is too demanding, does that throw that ground covering rack, largo, running walk, etc out the window? What about the tighter gaited horses. If you were going for a gaited horse would you choose based on build, stamina and personality or would you go more for a bigger range of gait?>> My husband has around 700 endurance miles (and over 500 LD miles) on his 14.2h Paso Fino gelding. He trots Diamante most of the time, except for the first 5-15 miles (depends on how excited D is <G>). D will gait this first part of a ride, wanting to break into a canter, as he's intent on catching the horse butts in front of him. <G> D's trot is *very* smooth, and he can really fly. His canter is like gliding along on a magic carpet. He can gait quite fast as well, we've clocked him at around 13 mph with our GPS a time or two.
In selecting a gaited horse (Ross has a second Paso he's bringing along), we look for the same things as in a non-gaited horse - good conformation, good substance, and good mind. And then on top of that, for Paso Finos, one does not want a "fino" horse - one of the Pasos with the very tight gait. One wants a horse with more of a largo, or extended gait. The "fino" horses are the ones you see in the show ring that look like sewing machines...legs going like crazy, but little forward progress.
Dawn Carrie, Texas On 3/4/08, Mellifluous <brio_gal@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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