Canter or lope on trail

I must admit that my lope is not competition ready. Nowhere near in fact. I have done practically no consistent arena work with Q in two years. I do quick tune-ups occasionally but for a horse that is not professionally trained, our training time since the beginning is probably an abysmal amount under 50 hours. And very little of that is doing lateral work or canter circles.

A great spot for a cantalope

The mere thought of canter circles, with the requisite shoulder-in, haunches-in, narrowing coils, transitions, rollbacks ... it all makes me want to vomit.

Bottom line is that when I bought Q I had a very simple vision: find a really cool trail horse that was fun to ride. So my arena work has only had the objective of safety and malleability.

One of the resident trainers said to their client that I was training for the purpose of insurance. That is, in the event of a potential wreck or accident, that we might increase our odds of “walking away”. I think the analogy was correct. Insurance.

Every time something happens on trail, like the encounter with the runaway horse, or when my trail buddy’s horse spooked and bolted away, or the incident with the double team runaway sleigh, or the flying snowmobile over our heads ... I make a little notch in my virtual notebook. Yet, I am under no allusions that a frightening and potentially mortal or handicapping incident is right around the bend for me. It is the great unknown in life, and sometimes I feel we challenge death and injury more vigorously with our love of horses and the great outdoors. Like flying too close to the sun.

But, injuries are a testament to a life well lived. And those of us that spend some time in the saddle have our fair share of injuries. Of course some of those injuries can also be psychological. I was so surprised to hear one of our boldest boarders last weekend say that she would not go down a particular creek because she had a bad fall there a year ago with her OTTB horse landing on her. She has gained much experience and mileage with that horse since then, but still suffers the PTSD.

So with my increasingly trusty steed, do we lope or canter on trail? What is the difference? Do we care?

Both gaits are three beat gaits and the legs follow the same pattern. But the speed at which the legs move, and the ground they cover is quite different. A six foot stride is the norm in western classes and when doing obstacles or pole courses that is the distance they are set at. Slow legged horses are often a function of breeding and the training then enhances that trait. Its why its so common to see the same QH type in the western classes. People who are competitive with other breeds in those western disciplines are often sticking within their breed at breed shows to “get a fair chance”.

A canter stride is more of an eight to twelve foot stride depending on the horse. There is more impulsion and the legs move faster with more height from the ground. 

So Q doesn’t have the right breeding to be slow legged, but he can certainly do a short stride of 6 feet. He does it with more natural impulsion (as per his breeding) than a QH and I have absolutely zero interest in training the impulsion out of him. I do however appreciate the self collection that he has naturally and that we have enhanced with the strength work from the trail. Its not competition worthy, but I do not have that intention anyways.

We have achieved a nice quality jog for the trail that is still too fast for competition but on the trail is quiet, steady and safe! Its safer because Q has natural impulsion and balance that has him pick up his feet, as opposed to the QH daisycutters that are constantly tripping on trail.  

We have achieved a nice quiet cantalope 😁most of the time, and while departures are smoother and the cadence is more steady and rhythmic, we still have quite a bit of work to do. We now cantalope double the amount we were doing last year and are better for it.

Its certainly nice to have multiple gears within the gaits as we continue to adjust to different riders. New trail buddy T was saying yesterday that my trot was too slow for her as she walked behind. She thought it was because I ride western. Well I pulled out second gear at the next pass and she exclaimed that it was now hard for her to follow. I giggled and said she hadn’t seen nothing yet. Ill pull out my top trot gear next time and see what she has to say about that.