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>I know that Lawton Johnson tired several times to breed a walker/arab
>cross.
<snip>
>Anyway Lawton didn't have much luck passing on the gait to a
>walker/Arab cross.
That's pretty much what I was afraid of - I figure if it worked, there'd be
some number of them out there.
>Misty best gait is her long smooth slow canter. She can do that all day
>long and you can ride it all day long. This is what I hope I can perserve
>in the cross.
Oh man! That's the feature I'm really looking for! I don't care to trot
if I don't have to and would never consider a 50 miler if I was going to
have to post for most of it.
>IMO the walker (or the walker that can do endurance) is a more high strung
>horse than the Arab! I find Misty much harder to deal with and much more
>likely to get hot than I do my Arabs.
What do you mean by this?
>when he gets ready to go. But the fire in the belly is not a bad
>thing - it just has to be delt with.
So you don't mean fractious. Do you mean they're a go-go-go sort of horse?
If so, that's something I'm having to deal with on my horse. He just
doesn't want to settle down and relax and go at his own pace. If there's a
horse in front of him, he wants to catch up. But like you say, it's not a
bad thing, but since we've just started doing endurance (only 2 25 milers
so far) he's just not in good enough shape to go as fast as he wants to go
for the entire distance. Plus, his canter does leave something to be
desired. And when I do let him canter, I can't keep him at a steady speed.
He slowly accelerates and at some point he starts getting really excited
and really wants to blast off at full tilt boogie. It's been a learning
process to keep him below the ignition point. A lot of it has to do with
ME learning to relax (a few lessons do wonders!), and as a result, our
relationship has made a quantum leap.
My horse is in as good a shape as he's ever been and on our 2nd ride
(Foxfire) we did the 25 miles in about 3:30. I was plenty pleased. Not
earth shattering, but we sailed through both vet checks, even though the
vet told me that since he was a gaited horse, he couldn't have told if he
was lame or not! ;)
Our biggest problem on the rides is that my wife's horse is in much better
shape and goes much faster. Her problem is that she keeps getting lost
which costs her gobs of time. So I need a faster horse so I can stay up
with her and keep her from getting lost so she can win! So we'll work more
on conditioning and keep our eye out for another horse for me.
Beaux (just say NO to trotting) Graham
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