Seriously, the feeling of a smooth, collected, rocking-horse canter is THE best. I like to keep Blaze on his toes with my transitions into cantering so I go into it from stop to canter, walk to canter, trot to canter depending how I feel. It seems to keep Blaze a little more in his brain thinking "ok, what does she want?" then when I used to just always transition walk, trot, canter. I couldn't get him to trot without trying to move on into canter. Now I have to ask him to get there, which is nice. Breaking from walk right into canter is really fun, on the odd occasion I do it I can really feel Blaze gather him and then quickly, but surprisingly smoothly, power himself right into a nice canter. At least he has some some nice gaits considering his trot can be pretty deadly. There are moments of perfection but for the most part its ROUGH. When he is being silly about something and is all high headed and alert while trotting I feel like I am going two feet straight up in the air and then back down, but not going very far forward. He really throws you out of the saddle. Encouraging him forward usually snaps his attention back to the business at hand and he lengthens out to a better gait, though still fairly rough. I do love his extended trot, however. He really stretches out and goes for it and it feels like flying! I'm being pushed up out of the saddle but also going so far forward at a time it balances out. It would probably be a riot to try an extended trot on a big Arab who really covered ground! Blaze gives it all he's got and still gets easily trotted by with the longer-legged horses (which is like, everybody). I sure love his steady, wonderful little self though! I feel so bad about his interference mark on his left hind that just is not healing. I can't believe vet wrap doesn't stay up! Isn't that the point?! Am I really that crappy at putting it on? I admittedly started out wrapping it way too loose because I was paranoid but even my snug wraps can't stay up while I'm riding him. They last longer when he is just in his paddock but still. Today I tried Vetericyn, a big bandaid (lol), about an inch of gauze padding and then a snug vet wrap. We'll see how long it lasts...
I should clean the mare paddock and I should mow the last of the lawn but I think I'll read my book in the sun for a while instead!
Totally agree. A smooth canter is just about the best. I know endurance riders are "supposed" to trot but I mix it up with a canter and rack pretty often :)
ReplyDeleteYep, I say nothing wrong with working different sets of muscle groups in the trot and canter. Sometimes Blaze breaks into a canter naturally on the trail and it is perfection, and when we are ready its back to trot, no sweat. When I bought him he had been see sawed on by beginners as a lesson horse so his version of canter was nose to the sky, brain turned off, little legs flying as I held on with a death grip. We've come a long ways! Also, having been lucky enough to ride with 2 first class endurance riders last year who mix canter into their rides quite liberally, I'm really okay with it now! Lol
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