ridecamp@endurance.net: [endurance] Anyone experienced with Tennesee Walking Horses

[endurance] Anyone experienced with Tennesee Walking Horses

Satori3@aol.com
Thu, 18 Apr 1996 21:02:08 -0400

I've been training my horse for an endurance ride the first of June. I
purchased Chance, currently a six-year-old, in the spring of '95. He has a
wonderful fast walk, smooth as ice, and he's so fast that all the other
horses with us, even the TWs we've ridden with on the trails, have broken
into canters to keep up. I know one isn't suppose to canter a TW, but I
plead guilty that a couple times (not several, only two or three times) last
year I allowed him to break into a canter (curiosity, I guess, as to how he
would move.) I gave him a break from riding most of the winter. Now, when
I ride him, I'm playing hell to try to get him into his running walk. He's
pacey. I'm blaming it on the fact that I had cantered him. I tried the
recommendation of John Lyons mentioned in his book (when a horse isn't moving
the way you want him to, bounce hard up and down in the saddle. The idea is
that the horse will find it uncomfortable and will learn to move into the
proper gait--you quit bouncing when he's doing it right.) Well, I'm popping
up and down like popcorn atop my saddle, and Chance is just cruising along
like nothing's bothering him. Thinking it was the vosal I'd been using on
him (perhaps didn't set his head right, although he seemed a "natural" at
walking out without any need to conciously properly set his head), I went
back to the pelham bit (he hates bits). I've been getting a little bit
better response from him to walk out, but he still gets pacey often enough to
get me aggravated. Any recommendations on how to encourage the "walk out"
and discourage the "pacing"?
(Note: I will never canter him again.)