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My purpose was not to get people to flock to my breed, but to understand
why it is that people would ride the horses they were describing. There has
to be a reason, since the temperaments they have been describing for many
of the horses being ridden certainly do not seem very pleasant, this from
their own descriptions of the horses, not mine. Apparently it is because
the horses excel at what they are being used for, although some of the
comments from riders of gaited horses indicate that gaited horses may also
be able to compete effectively as well. I noted that the gentleman that was
recently inducted into the Hall of Fame was described by one person as
riding a TWH, for instance, which is what started me thinking about making
my inquiry.
If you found my comment about the "body-pounding trot", offensive, my
apologies. I just find the trot very hard to take after 16 years of riding
gaited horses. I see no reason to do so when I can ride gaited horses
instead. The CANTER program people discovered the secret to helping
handicapped children progess, that is, that the movement of a horse at the
walk causes the human body to move in the same way it moves when we walk.
Thus, handicapped children receive genuine theraputic benefits from being
placed on the back of a walking horse, that they can not get from
traditional methods of physical therapy. Gait is at its simplest is a walk
gene run wild, a walk gene that has been stregthened in successive
generations of breeding until you get a horse that literally walks right up
through the speed at which one of the hard two beat gaits would normally
control the neural spinal nets that produce the movement of the horse.
Thus, a person sitting on the back of a gaited horse is having her body
moved in a way that is completely natural to that body, the same as if she
were walking. The concussion of the trot is not natural to the human body,
though. Nothing we do produces the same amount of force that is transferred
to our joints and cartilage from sitting on a trotting horse, even if we
post. My runnner daughter tells me that not even running transfers as much
concussion to the body. Thus, it would seem to me that riding a trotting
horse over time would be an invitation to joint and cartilage breakdown,
particularly of the spinal pads, an area of our physiology where
anthropologists tell us we have not yet gotten done evolving to handle our
upright stance, which is why our species has so many back problems.
However, viva la difference for those who actually do enjoy riding the
trot, such as yourself.
Annette
----------
> From: tina hicks <hickst@puzzler.nichols.com>
> To: ridecamp@endurance.net
> Cc: gerhardt@theriver.com
> Subject: Re: Fashion and the market
> Date: Monday, March 10, 1997 8:00 AM
>
> At 05:59 PM 3/9/97 -0700, gerhardt wrote:
> I have
> >really wondered why more people are not flocking to the gaited horses
> >generally and Mountain Horses specifically, rather than keep on riding
> >horses that they have to stand in the saddle to get away from a body
> >pounding trot, instead of a horse that they can sit on in comfort for
both
> >themselves and the horse.
>
> ========
> Well, I, for one, love to post to what you call a "body-pounding" trot -
I
> love that big trot that gets me down the trail....In many cases the
> behaviours you read about here are not always a function of the breed -
it's
> prior riding. For some reason, many of us seem to be riding other
people's
> problems and what you hear us talk about is the direct result of that.
>
> As for not being many gaited horses out there - endurance riding is the
kind
> of sport where the breeds that do it and stay sound are the ones folks
use
> by and large - for a bunch of reasons, Arabs (and some other breeds as
well)
> seem to be particularly suited to this sport.
>
> I don't know that much about the population of gaited horses vs.
non-gaited
> - maybe it's more a function of there just aren't as many??? Sure doesn't
> seem that way down here in the South - we are racking and walking horse
> heaven. there are gaited horses that do it successfully - maybe Truman
will
> pipe up -but you are right - not many. Dunno if it's cause they haven't
been
> successful or cause they really haven't had a chance to try.....
>
> A little side note - belittling other breeds is not the way (at least in
my
> mind) to make people want to flock to you or your breed :-))
> Tina | Huntsville, AL
> hickst@nichols.com
>
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