>>>> --- Nancy Sturm <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: If the horse is trotty, I'll >>>> allow, even encourage him to do it, but not to the extend that it kills >>>> his gaits.
>> Do you really think that if a horse both trots and gaits naturally and at >> liberty, trotting will diminish the ability to gait? Being new to gaited >> horses, I have both of mine both trotting and gaiting. Hunter has been >> doing this for four years now - admitttedly only a one horse test) and he's >> still doing several gaits plus trotting. Nancy Remember I was a closet-trotter for years, now one who openly trots, so I wasn't talking about merely trotting some of the time...I was talking about trotting to extent of working towards COLLECTED trot...getting the horse's nose towards the vertical, etc. (Remember, the subject line: heads and necks.) That takes a lot of trotting, and not just any old trot will get you towards collection. I DO think that if you trot that much that it's quite possible to affect the muscle memory of what the horse tends to do naturally....or trotting that much may simply be too much stress for a horse who has a lot of lateralness to his gaits. Karen Thomas, NC Karen Thomas, NC
