Has anyone here never galloped their horse?

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Charla

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Just out of interest really.
Especially those who have youngsters...have you ever galloped them and if so, at what age were they when you first did?
 
Not as yet - my boy was broken in last year, then spent most of last year on holiday due to my ill health. I have lovely woods and bigs fields I can ride in fairly locally, but no one to really get him out and hacking safely as yet. He has come back into work a few weeks ago, and has now done himself a mischief - so the galloping is going to wait! I'm not entirely sure that I will encourage him to learn to gallop, as he is a bit of a tit at the best of times!! lol :D
 
This mare yes, accidently, on the way home from a hack when I had had her only 3 days :eek:
Otherwise no, nowhere suitable really.
re: youngsters, depends on the temperment and maturity of the horse :)
 
Nope, no fields or bridleways... Limited to roadwork only or there's two stoney tracks. Bit rubbish really considering I live in the middle of nowhere!
 
Depends on horse and facilities. I don't consider it necessary for all (most probably) horses to be galloped under saddle. A good canter is probably beneficial for most to move freely but galloping is somethign some horses would generally only do when panicked so not such a big deal IMO.

Having said that previous horse was very interested in galloping so we did a couple of times a week if conditions permitted. Although I generally didn't ask for anything beyond an extended canter unless it came if you see what I mean. Horse was as pretty good judge of going (although didn't like my vetoing gallop anywhere with too many rabbit holes!)

Current horse is a different breed, age, fitness level and temperament so we may never gallop. Having said that horse clearly doesn't know horse isn't an eventer so we may next time ground is good...

Never ridden a youngster anywhere safe to gallop.
 
pinklilly said:
Nope, no fields or bridleways... Limited to roadwork only or there's two stoney tracks. Bit rubbish really considering I live in the middle of nowhere!
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I feel your pain, I am almost completely limited to roads as my horse doesn't like gates very much :/ & the fields are always up for hay / like concrete when she'd be fit enough to gallop. I also live in the middle of nowhere :(

I don't think I've ever actually had her galloping & I've owned her 6yrs.. didn't even get her to do it XC after letting all the other horses go out of sight fatty mare :rolleyes: she's got a great loping canter though! haha
 
All of my established ones can gallop. The darty and the shetland are just too plain lazy to more than once a year! Then my others are cheats - they were racehorses, and the other shetland was a grand national pony. I am lucky in that we have plenty of stubble fields in the autumn/winter to play in and my bosses 6furlong uphill woodchip gallop.
 
My ex-racehorse - yes - fast! Loved it! He did too and was jig jogging along shouting that he's still got it (while puffing quite a lot!).

My irish sports horse - nope! I've seen him flat out round the field and its not reassuring!!
 
haven't done so on Micah yet as with my ankle and weather not had the chance. Used to often gallop Beacon, when conditions allowed

Did us both good to have a good gallop :D
 
Not on purpose (as I don't care for it myself) - only in a flight situation. I have spent time re-educating my horse to canter in a collected manner rather than to take hold.

Each to their own!
 
Luckily I have miles of off road hacking near me so normally once a week a group of us go onto a hill for a good gallop if the ground is good... The youngest I've properly galloped a horse is at 5/6 years old however saying that we did do a few short gallops out hunting when he was 4... It does totally depend on the horse and I can safely say that when I bring myself back into the saddle, he'll go into a nice steady canter :)

I absolutely love it and so do the horses but I wouldn't say it's necessary at all
 
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Not deliberatley ;)! But my horse could out run ex racers with me on - hes rather fast when he used to take ahold in the countryside. Now moved a lot closer to London and dont have a wide enough space for him to take off in a gallop.... good thing really :p!! Fast canter cross country schooling is about all hes allowed to do now hes chilled out a lot
 
I havent yet...only had her since end of February and spent a few weeks getting used to her, since then the ground has been to hard even for a canter out really, so have cantered her lots in the school but stuck to trotting steadily when out. I do get the impression she has had quite a lot of experience of cantering on fields though judging by how her tail comes up and she starts prancing when we go through them! So i should think it is quite good for her to be asked to go through them at a walk or trot for now. I am little concerned at the breaking ability i will have in an open field so will hold off til i have had more lessons, sorted out what bit is best for her (she is in a loose ring snaffle at the mo which has been fine so far but may need something else for faster work!), and the ground softens.
 
One of my old ponies I never galloped. He would be lucky if I would canter him through fields because he could be a git.

I haven't galloped my current horse either. Plenty of cantering but never galloped her. I would love to but because she has a huge ground covering stride I would need a very large field. Unfortunately most of the fields around her are only suitable for cantering her in. The beach would be ideal.

On a side not I hear so many people say "oh, we went galloping today" when in fact they only went for a medium canter at the fastest!
 
Not galloped no, he's only 6 (and a babyish one) and don't have suitable ground or the enviroment to be letting them have it, too many ducks flying out of ditches for my liking and I like my face the way it is.... (well with plenty of slap on) :D
 
Oh yeah we love it.

We have gallops five minute hack from us so go on there.

Although I have let my 4 year old x-racer gallop, i've never let go of the brake totally, she is fast but don't see the need to push her to the limit.
 
When I galloped my dear little Arab (stallion) for the first time we had complete brake failure :eek: not naughty just a great big baby no idea moment :o

The wind in my ears was amazing (in an OMG I'm going to die sort of a way) and I did think 'oh b*gger, this isn't going well' as the end of the firebreak and the fence for the M25 were coming up fast :eek:

In the end I just sat up and patted him and said good boy and it broke the trance and he very politely came back to me :cool:

I made sure the next time I galloped him there was a long uphill bit :cool: but he never did it again bless him.
 
Kenzo said:
Not galloped no, he's only 6 (and a babyish one) and don't have suitable ground or the enviroment to be letting them have it, too many ducks flying out of ditches for my liking and I like my face the way it is.... (well with plenty of slap on) :D
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haha that made me laugh!

I can't see myself galloping my gelding. I used to love the odd gallop with my little Arab loan horse but I have a feeling it would be all too exciting for my gelding and he would ping me off at the start :p. He's only a baby now but it's just in his nature to find things a little too much and explode. My face isn't too bad with a load of slap on either so would rather keep it that way hahahaha. Certainly wouldn't want to look any worse anyway!

So I was just interested if anyone just never gallops their horse, ever.
 
I would love to take mine for a gallop but have nowhere to do so, the TB i can imagine would be fantastic, the most we have got up to is a strong canter round a fairly big field. I reckon he still has another 3 gears in him that he could show me!
 
I have usually had the odd gallop on most of the horses and ponies I've had. I like to do sponsered rides and there are a few locally which are good for a gallop. One of mine is retired now and used to play high goal polo, was always a bit of a speed merchant. I used to love to let him go on the sponsered rides that had a good long stretch of good ground. It didn;t happen often as I would never be able to pull him up - it had to be long enough for him to slow down to canter on his own accord. At home we would canter in a nice collected manner as there was nowhere big enough to let him go.

It is a thrill, but on the couple of occasions when he went without me wanting to, bloody terrifying.
 
I actually don't think I have. Automatic response was 'of course' but I think we've probably never done more than a fast canter! We have some lovely paths on the moor for cantering on and our own land when the ground is good but I would be reluctant to ask for a full-on gallop as he has quite a long stride and is fairly lazy so by the time we'd got up speed I suspect we would run out of room! Would also worry about him deciding he likes it too much as usually he is quite well mannered. Maybe we'll have a trip to the beach at some point so I can see how fast he can move! :D
 
Have broken into gallop for a few strides from fast canters when horse has become overkeen on pleasure rides at times but bring her back to canter immediately when this happens, and certainly gallop out hunting, but normal hacking we don't. Can't ever see a need to and I'm very selective with ground for cantering, let alone a true gallop. Think I'd only do that if on purpose built gallops but don't have access to those around here so not an issue.
 
Went for a gallop on my lad for the first time last year (as a 6yo) just after the silage had been cut. Aside from him getting a bit humpy and trying to deck me, it was very exciting! I would have galloped my ponies all day long, but we don't have off road riding here really, so only chance is when the hay/silage has just been cut, and when the ground is suitable.
 
sweet release of the south downs!! maybe not always in control but love it on my tb he runs like the wind and miles of grass tracks and gallops!! love love love thats why i have a racehorse! : )
 
Hum, this thread really makes you think!!! Like Celia my automatic response was 'of course' but thinking about it I have never galloped one of my horses!

Horse 1 I didn't gallop untill she was 6 or so, (stubble fields :D) but then since then haven't really had anywhere to go more than a canter. Horse 2 I have never galloped, just not had the space to do it!!
 
Nope - never .... we don't have the best hacking in our area.

Very envious of people who can go for miles off road for nice long, safe, leisurely rides.
 
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