>>>And then there are horses that are disturbed by posting and move to >>>another gait. So to keep them in trot you just lean forward, keep most of >>>your weight on stirrups and don't breathe... Posting would be a disaster. >>>Perhaps gradually it's possible to actually sit on the saddle and after a >>>few years even posting might be possible. ... I've always posted if the >>>horse has strong enough trot for that (when I'm trail riding, on an arena >>>it's easier to work with sitting down). Only once I've gotten a comment >>>from a young girl that knew "everything" about Icelandics (she probably >>>had all 6 months experience with them ;D) that "you should never post >>>when riding an icelandic". I didn't ask why she thought that, the answer >>>would probably have been something like "it will ruin their tölt" because >>>that seems to be the reason for most things that are not "allowed". >>>Anyway in my 16 years of riding Icelandics that's the only time anyone >>>has told me not to post.
I'd look at it this way: if the horse's trot is so tenuous that posting will throw him into another gait, then maybe he shouldn't be trotting. When I got my first trotting gaited horse almost twenty years ago, I didn't want to send her to a "gaited horse trainer" so I was on my own, eventually working with a good trainer who had only limited gaited horse experience at the time. I didn't know how to get and keep her in gait (and she was too young to be under saddle, but that's another issue) but when I felt her trot, I decided to post to it. Instead of throwing her into another gait, posting helped her hold the rhythm of trot. Some Icelandic's can't trot easily. Some can't gait easily. I tried everything to get Mac (TWH) to trot, but he just didn't have it in him, so we didn't push it. I think it would have been just as bad to force a horse like him to trot as it would be to force Tivar to tolt. If we have to be sooo careful to keep the horse in a particular gait, maybe we need to rethink if the gait is necessary for that horse. There are Icelandic's who can easily trot AND gait, but that's not true for all Icelandic's...or any gaited breed for that matter. Karen Thomas, NC
