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Re: efficient gaits



Here in the land of untrained but steadily working Arabs, a trot is
something that you have to REALLY teach your horse, whereas a canter or lope
is what they do by choice.  Egypt is still about 1850 when it comes to
horsepower, that is, much of the pulling and carrying in the
countryside....and even, God forbid, in the middle of Cairo, is still done
by horses.  The cart horses are usually heavyish Anglo Arab stallions, ave.
15+ hands, who can jog along for hours with a heavy wooden cart behind.
They can also maintain a lovely smooth lope with the same equipment but it
is obviously not a very safe thing to do.  I have, however seen this on many
occasions.  Our 'baladi' or country bred Arabs are probably the domestic
equivalent to the mustang in many ways.  They have to be tough, strong and
smart to survive and if I give Dory a chance she will do all her travelling
at a lope.....actually, if she had the chance, she'd go for a few km of
flat, earspinning gallop and then relax to a lope, but she doesn't get to.
:<)   The hardest thing in bringing her back from the ligament injury has
been to maintain a training speed of a trot.  We are now at a point where I
will allow a hand canter or lope on appropriate surface, ie, no deep soft
sand.  She's a much happier lady.

Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo, Egypt
gabbani@starnet.com.eg






    I may be opening myself up to attack here, but...
>    Isn't it possible that the discrepancy between racehorses on a
treadmill
>and endurance horses on the flat is that racehorses are bred for and, more
>importantly, are conditioned at a canter/gallop and *some* endurance horses
>are conditioned mostly at a trot?  It appears to me that neither gives
>conclusive evidence, other than you get what you train for.
>    Of course, there was that article on racehorses that said the canter
>was more efficient than it was initially realized, because horses naturally
>breathed with every stride, so that it was part of the motion.  Of course,
>there was that theory by assorted endurance riders, like Linda T-J, that
>a good endurance horse learns to breath in time with his/her trot...
>    Is there any way to really determine whether a trot or canter is more
>efficient, or is it safe to assume that each horse is different, and
>those differences are enough to override any specific efficiencies in the
>general design of a horse's gaits?  Did that make sense?



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