Canter on tarmac - do you?

pennyturner said:
What have I started? :op



Seriously though - get over it! I'm a little overweight myself, but I feel alot lighter without the chip on my shoulder...
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Ok..so she'd eaten all the pies and was possibly en route to buying some more :D

Don't see a problem cantering an unshod horse on the road and also cantering does not have to be faster than a trot.
 
Oh, wait... is it acceptable to leap upon one's steed??? I mean, don't want to give him back issues or anything...

:confused:
 
""Doesn't matter if you fall on a road or out on a rocky xc course. It's going to hurt. Actually, it doesn't matter where you fall... it's going to hurt, even on grass.""

Sorry but Ive fallen off on grass many times even flat out gallop and was unhurt, but ive seen people come off on road and hard surface and they had really sore injuries one had cracked ribs !

Its just common sense that falling onto a road is gonna hurt like hell !!!
 
Actually the only two times I have been screamed at by a driver on the roads was when I was riding at a walk....... and both times were by horsebox drivers!!! how's that for some irony:D

Both were on tiny little quiet lanes at off-peak times. One was whilst riding a rehab horse putting in their early walk-work, the second was going to a local show, and what my horse and I could see, but the traffic following couldn't, was a group of people walking to the showground just ahead round a corner of the lane.
I could mention something about 'glass houses' here but that would be such a cliche...............;)
 
I wouldn't intentionally go out of my way to do so. Certainly not with a horse that hasn't been worked to condition its legs (e.g. only been worked in a sand school) whether barefoot or not. even a hard field has a little give in it. concrete and tarmac doesn't. But that's my opinion.
 
khadijah said:
""Doesn't matter if you fall on a road or out on a rocky xc course. It's going to hurt. Actually, it doesn't matter where you fall... it's going to hurt, even on grass.""

Sorry but Ive fallen off on grass many times even flat out gallop and was unhurt, but ive seen people come off on road and hard surface and they had really sore injuries one had cracked ribs !

Its just common sense that falling onto a road is gonna hurt like hell !!!
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It's ok, you don't have to apologise. Unless you were being rude or something??
 
StormyMoments said:
concrete and tarmac doesn't. But that's my opinion.
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On a technical level, concrete and tarmac are very, very different substances. Concrete is much more rigid and inflexible than tarmac. Tarmac has a lot more give in it - which is why I'd canter on tarmac much more readily than I would canter on concrete.
 
RunToEarth said:
Personally most worried about the amount of posters who would never canter down a road on purpose - I actually feel that one of the basic skills of riding out is to control which gait your horse is in so as not to put yourself/horse/every other road user in danger.

I have cantered on tarmac before, out hunting.
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I wouldn't canter intentionally on the road but have done unintentionally before now however it was only a few strides before pony came back as asked :D
 
JFTD said:
On a technical level, concrete and tarmac are very, very different substances. Concrete is much more rigid and inflexible than tarmac. Tarmac has a lot more give in it - which is why I'd canter on tarmac much more readily than I would canter on concrete.
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Daughter is with me and we both agree strongly with this. All our ponies are more used to road work than school work, so I would think their legs are as strong as a desert mustang. They'll trot on tarmac all day long, but not on concrete.
 
wowser said:
teaching ponies to canter on roads not a good idea, that is the one place you need control all the time
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Since when does canter = out of control :eek:

I genuinely worry about this mentality of not being able to control your horse in certain gaits - canter should be no more difficult to control or less balanced than any other pace.
 
Thank You for This Thread as This was Some of the Info That I Needed for My Book....
Its Fanasty {Set in the Here and Now} but I'm trying to get The {9 Hand} Pony parts as Real as Possable.... ;)
 
JFTD said:
Since when does canter = out of control :eek:

I genuinely worry about this mentality of not being able to control your horse in certain gaits - canter should be no more difficult to control or less balanced than any other pace.
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I was just thinking the same thing myself...

If you can't control a horse/pony in ALL it's gaits, what ARE you doing out on the road anyway? :D

On the motorways, you have to able to go over 30MPH and if you can't come back to trot for your junction, it's a right pain having to go to the next one... especially when you've got Eddie Stobart hot on your tail...

:D
 
Would never canter on a hard surface because the concussion will lead to premature joint damage. I'm surprised people do as I was taught cantering on roads a definite no. Steady trot, pref uphill, is all I would ever ask my horse to do.
 
lamlyn2012 said:
Would never canter on a hard surface because the concussion will lead to premature joint damage. I'm surprised people do as I was taught cantering on roads a definite no. Steady trot, pref uphill, is all I would ever ask my horse to do.
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If your horse has shoes on I'll bet my bottom dollar it's getting more joint damage than my unshod cantering horse.

And if it hasn't got shoes on, can you show us where the evidence is that unshod horses cantering on roads suffer joint damage?
 
This thread reminds me of Sheldon cooper on tbbt trying to explain to the HR lady that he hadn't meant that his female assistant was the only woman who was a slave to her hormones,he meant ALL women were slaves to their hormones, including you, Mrs HR lady :D

Being sensible for the moment, isn't it up to all of us to do our best for our horses and to use common sense and act according to the best of our knowledge? Some of us will have been taught not to canter on roads, so what, they're not harming those who have read the recent research, and it doesn't mean that those who won't canter on roads barefoot (like me) are going to be trotting at a spine jolting pace instead, we are more than capable of trotting under control. On the other hand I must be a terrible person because I used to hack out on roads a cob who it took me 2 years to convince that there were versions of canter that could be slower and more elegant than "wheeeee!!" Or "stop and look confused". :rolleyes: yet he could do collected working and medium trots and was a traffic proof as they come, and we had lovely quiet village lanes and acres and acres of forest where we could safely work on these funny versions of canter called collected. Bad me! :p
 
tallyho! said:
On the motorways, you have to able to go over 30MPH and if you can't come back to trot for your junction, it's a right pain having to go to the next one... especially when you've got Eddie Stobart hot on your tail...
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On the motorway pony prefers to gallop down the verge, jumping drainage ditches, and any bits of fender or tyre that are in the way. Now I know that's because it's better for his legs. :oD
 
pennyturner said:
On the motorway pony prefers to gallop down the verge, jumping drainage ditches, and any bits of fender or tyre that are in the way. Now I know that's because it's better for his legs. :oD
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:eek::eek:that's illegal!

Cannot believe you are promoting such behaviour on a public forum! What if someone ACTUALLY does it???

:D
 
cptrayes said:
If your horse has shoes on I'll bet my bottom dollar it's getting more joint damage than my unshod cantering horse.
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What a spitefull thing to say.
Incidentially my advise came from a very well known, highly respected, three day event rider.
That aside, I am expressing my opinion, which I should be able to do without receiving nasty comments about the way I keep and ride my horses, which I love to bits and try to do my very best for.
To me it seems common sense that any animal or human who is pounding on hard ground is going to prematurly wear away the joint cartilage. Isn't that why so many riders pulled out of Badminton a few years ago- because of hard ground? If there are any vets on here I would be interested in their view please.
 
lamlyn2012 said:
Isn't that why so many riders pulled out of Badminton a few years ago- because of hard ground?
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Well, everything jumping round Badminton will have shoes on, and studs, and will be galloping and jumping on hard ground. Yea, I'd pull out too. Not really relevant to a collected canter, unshod on tarmac (which does actually have some give).
 
Riders with shod horses are knackering their horses legs, joints and feet, simply because the shock absorbing qualities that are naturally present are destroyed by shoeing.
Argue all you like about it, it is and always will be detrimental.
 
our horses turn themselves out walk or trot out, occasionally they wind them selves up and the last ones maybe do a stride or two of canter on the back yard before entering the field. But never intentionally riding on-rd
(waits to be shot down)
 
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Did it once, accidentally when I touched her quarters to get her back in line. When she pulled up, a back shoe had twisted half off. Nice random workman held her while I yanked it off. I wouldn't deliberately canter a shod horse on the road, just my opinion.
 
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