On Mar 13, 2008, at 6:52 AM, Karen Thomas wrote: >>>>> For most gaited horses, sitting deep in the saddle and putting your > weight on the loins (or shifting the saddle back) will get the horse > to get > under itself and generally will cause it to gait, if it has any > tendency at > all. > > > Maybe I’m taking you too literally, but PLEASE, no weight on the loins > – > EVER. I won’t argue about slightly altering your weight by shifting > your > torso SLIGHTLY back, but the horse’s loins are not made to support > weight. > Getting gait is not worth hurting the horse! It’s not required, so > why do > it?
I didn't say it was a good practice, but it is done, nonetheless. Certainly this list has published enough pictures of riders water-skiing in the saddle, the TWH's have their "turtle man" trainer posture in the show ring, and the Peruvians specifically allow the judge to ride any horse he wishes in breeding or gait classes so he can determine if the gait comes from the rider or the horse (I've seen judges ask a rider in the line up to get off and reposition the saddle more forward, too) > >>>>> The first thing to try, though, is to run in hand or pony the horse > along side a horse that IS gaiting, on a hard surface or next to a > wall so > the gaiting horse's footfalls can be heard. > > > Again, I cringe! You may literally mean for a few strides, and I won’t > quibble about the harm from that. But, I think most times, > training/refining/encouraging gait should be measured in weeks, > months, even > YEARS, and hard surfaces are very stressful on the hoofs and joints. Perhaps North Carolina dirt is fluffier than our adobe clay, which the horses live on 24/7, ride on routinely, and which it takes an industrial grade auger to dig a fence hole in. <g> My daughter's junior class show gelding had only been trained in fluffy sand, the drag of which squared up his pasitrote to an acceptable paso llano. We test rode him at the seller's. No sand at my place and he immediately went to pasitrote, so Liz and I ran in hand my very well gaited (naturally locked in -- couldn't break the gait if you tried) mare and Dondiego up my 200 yd dirt drive way. He "got it" right away (thank goodness -- neither of us were up for jogging all day). Liz rode him to several performance championships and three years of junior show classes. But of course it takes months of long, slow WALKING with a rider to get a horse's muscles ready to start collecting and asking for speed (Dondiego was 8 when I bought him). Lynn Kinsky, Santa Ynez, CA http://www.silcom.com/~lkinsky/ http://www.dslextreme.com/~napha/HighPoint/ IceHorses Community for Photos and Videos: http://kickapps.com/icehorses "The greatest enemy of the truth very often is not the lie- deliberate, contrived and dishonest -- but the myth -- persistent, persuasive and unrealistic." "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." ~ Arthur Schopenhauer [] Lee Ziegler http://leeziegler.com [] Liz Graves http://lizgraves.com [] Lee's Book Easy Gaited Horses http://tinyurl.com/7vyjo [] IceHorses Map http://www.frappr.com/IceHorses Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IceHorses/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IceHorses/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
