canter or gallop?

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gable

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Might be a silly question but...when you are on board, other than going faster how do you know if your horse is cantering or galloping?

I know canter is 3 beat and gallop is 4, but is there a way to tell when you are riding?

from walk to trot and trot to canter it is easy to tell the difference.
But from canter to gallop I cant tell, other than going faster - or maybe my horse is just cantering fast!

Sorry for the silly question, just something that came up while on a fun ride today with friends.
 
Further to the above answers, I find when my mare moves forward into gallop she drops about a foot in height and her body and neck stretch much longer. If you glance down you can also see their forelegs stretching forward in front of their nose which I don't believe would normally happen in canter.
 
personally i find canter is easy to 'sit' to whereas the gallop has more of a tendancy to push you forwards due to the movement of the back legs
 
agree with the above. my mare shrinks by about a foot and u can really feel them stretching out. if you're going at full stretch, they usually have their ears back aswell :D
 
On the few occassions when Daisy galloped you could definitely tell it was different although i couldn't exactly tell you why. More a sensation that we were much closer to the ground and that she was going absolutely flat out. I would have said that its a bit less rolling than a canter, much flatter.
 
I have only ever noticed that Motor 'changes' speed back down to Canter and it is just a 'feeling' you get ..... and when he goes from Canter to Trot he throws his leading leg out ...... if you see what I mean :)
 
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