Endurance, and a horse who prefers canter to trot?

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mystiandsunny

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I have a TB who can canter and canter and canter. She loves hacking out, is generally calm and chilled and I love spending time in her company on long rides. However, I've got the impression from what I've read that endurance is mostly trot? Her choice has always been walk or canter (pref canter), with trot where we have to due to the ground - not miles and miles of trot. She'd hate anything that involved that :(. So - do we have a chance? COULD you canter more (steadily obv) and trot less? Just thinking pleasure rides, that kind of thing...
 
i used to own an ex endurance horse - did a lot of canter work with her - she did have a trot but she preferred to canter canter canter so can only think that she did a lot of canter in her endurance, she could maintain it for ever and was very relaxed in it.
 
Most endurance riders canter steadily wherever possible, rather than trot. It is much kinder on the horse's legs than a jarring trot.
 
Some horses are trotty horses, some are cantery horses, and some are equally strong in both. The idea is to cover the ground as efficiently as possible, so you play to your strengths :)
 
It depends on the horse and on the ground. My girl is a trot-fiend and our endurance rides are mainly on soft forest tracks and moorland so jarring not an issue, also she is unshod so has better shock absorbers!

The only issue I can think of is that if you are starting out you probably want to buddy up to with someone on the rides, and the people who canter more of the way tend to be the faster more experienced riders/fitter horses, which might be a bit much to start with. But it depends on the speed of yourhorses canter.

But def dont let it stop you, the organisers will find someone suitable for you if you want a pair and also there isnt a set pace, all there is is a mix/max time band which kind of works with trot as an average. So cantering more than trotting might just mean more time walking too so that the average works out.

Def do it, you will have a lovely time.
 
Ive often wondered this as well, my mare loves to RUN! She goes and goes and goes and loves it. Canter or Gallop, she just wants to go! She goes for a good canter / gallop for 45 mins every now and again, and in 10mins shes ready to go again! Duracell bunny pony!

Shes supposed to be a dressage pony! Hahha.
Also on this topic, any good boots to protect their legs?

Thanks :)
 
Alot of the rides have more than enough places to bowl along at a good canter - I used to, where the terrain suited, canter on for as long as the horse was happy - that way you would almost bank time, which you could use to walk in the last few miles, that way you pretty much guarantee a nice low heart rate at the end.

Also, a steadily cantering horse tends to operate with a lower heartrate than a horse that is trotting from what I have been told.
 
Because a lot of endurance rides cover varied 'going', then a bit like hunting most people dont use boots. Partly cos any mud that gets inside a boot becomes like sandpaper and can cause more problems than it solves, also cos if you are sloshing the horse with water on longer distances this can add to the sweat and again cause irritation when it works down inside the boot. Also if it comes half off.

The routes are checked/ridden before the ride to marker them and any hazards are flagged up. Its fair to say it also depends where you are in the country and even the specific ride eg I am up in the hills and so a ride by me (E Cairngorms) involves a fair amount of rough stone tracks up big hills, moors with bumps and lumps and tree roots/branches whereas one in eg coastal N Aberdeenshire might be nearly all flat straightforward terrain (which also means horse needs to be fitter here for the given distance!)
 
Hi Mysti and Sunni,

You're near to me - and I keep meaning to get in touch with you at some point and meet up. My fault it's not happened - with a full time job and 2 part-time jobs too (to pay for the ponies!), I hardly have any free time at all. It would be nice to one day meet face to face though!

If your TB is happier cantering, then there's no problem with that, your horse may well have a lower heart rate at a steady canter than at a "moving" trot - as others have said though, it depends on the suitability of the terrain. Endurance is all about knowing your horse and how he/she is most comfortable - and using that knowledge accordingly.
 
Thanks for all the replies - it does look possible then :). Was thinking of picking the rides accordingly so there's more canter terrain.

I used not to bother with the idea as I couldn't keep weight on whenever we upped the work, but now she can live out on long grass in the summer, so it might be possible! :D. She's fit enough already to canter steadily for 30min solidly without a break (so about 6 miles?), and would be making sure she was more than fit enough for any ride we entered - we have a way to go yet!

And to Faro - I'd love to meet up sometime. Would be fun!
 
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