It depends. Most of the time we’re not in a hurry; sometimes we are. We set the gait based upon need.
One thing we will do is dismount and walk and then rest for a short period (say, 10 min. each) every hour. That will limber up the rider and ease the strain on the horse’s back.
G.
I never did answer your question. It depends on who I ride with. I do ride with moseyers sometimes and people who like to mostly move out. If I am riding with my husband, we mix it up.
My friend and I just mosey most of the time with a little trotting. We usually have our cameras with us so are always looking for pictures to take. Our terrain is not really safe to canter. Open fields that groundhogs seem to love
[QUOTE=dacasodivine;7670856]
Good. You at least know that’s not it.
What do you feed him?
Have you had a trainer ride him? A trainer might be able to help with that behavior.[/QUOTE]
He’s gets grass hay. That’s it. He does get a small amount of soaked beet pulp for his multi vitamin supplement. No grain. He’s a morgan - SUPER easy keeper. Trainer… no way. Did that route and it went bad. We don’t have good trainers here. I went to several Buck Brannaman clinics (just to watch) and he has helped me the most. I think I know where I went wrong on the last few rides. And it just so happened a Buck B. posting came up on FB(he has these sayings every once in a while) and it said something like… “Horses need structure and rules. Be firm but not aggressive, support the horse. Aggressive will cause a flighty horse. Keep emotion out of it and KEEP the rules the same! Don’t change the game on them and love them.”
So… I LOVE his sayings because they always have a meaning behind them if you really think about it and it makes much more sense if you go to his clinics. but I’ve been letting the structure go out the window which most of my rules have then changed. My horse NEEDS more structure than most. And he needs the rules to be very consistent. Today I went out and went back to how I was riding and I had a different horse. Now he might still kick out when he’s excited but I don’t think I’m going to get a really hard buck.
Both hands are on the reins so he feels support. Lose rein but not sloppy. Enough to when we start to go down a hill and I feel him heavy on the front end, I just lift with the reins and sit down and he gathers himself nicely.
I asked him to trot and when he went to speed up today, light contact and then slack, he was very good. His walk was much more forward and nice and fast. Structure and rules.
There’s always something the human does or doesn’t do. It’s NOT the horse. I remember Buck making some comment about keeping the horse in his “square or box” and they not only want that, they crave it. It keeps them feeling safe as a prey animal. I was in the lead today, husband behind us and a duck flew out of the pond right next to us out of the blue!! He just spread his legs a bit like “what was that??” and then he sighed and went on. Husband’s horse… well, she flew sideways up the side of the hill - LOL!!!
[QUOTE=Guilherme;7670904]
It depends. Most of the time we’re not in a hurry; sometimes we are. We set the gait based upon need.
One thing we will do is dismount and walk and then rest for a short period (say, 10 min. each) every hour. That will limber up the rider and ease the strain on the horse’s back.
G.[/QUOTE]
I like to get off and walk if I’m out longer than 2 hours or if we have long down hills. I’ll ride the uphill and get off and walk the downhill. Then I get some exercise and loosen up my knees and back. Feels good to get off part of the time 
[QUOTE=katyb;7670865]
Do whatever makes you happy with your ride. That’s pretty much the only point of the ride, right?[/QUOTE]
You are very correct Today my ride made me very happy. I don’t ride alone anymore. But riding with my husband is fine. He goes along with what I’m comfortable with. I haven’t met any friends to ride with because they either let their horses GO and I’m not comfortable with that or they want to go thru the boggiest areas and I’m not comfortable with that either. I don’t need a horse injury. When I had my steady eddy endurance horse, I would go out alone and ride for HOURS. But I"m old now and I feel safer with the company of another good horse. Here we have too many wild animals out and about on the trail. Today we saw a bobcat and a coyote. Last time we saw a bear! So, I want to be with someone.
It depends which horse I am riding, and the group. My older horse(TB) is pretty steady and my barn friend and I often go out and do some trotting and cantering if the footing allows.(I’m 60 and friend is 69) Some days though we prefer to mosey. This past Monday was a mosey day. We stayed on the farm and took the dogs out with us. It was pretty hot and our agenda was to prune the trees that were over growing the trail. Tomorrow we are going out with the farm owner(she’s 65). She fox hunts so likes to go faster. We will go cross country through several farms, cross a deep ditch type creek. On Saturday we will go to an area state park and I will take my young Tb mare. We will probably mostly walk with a littlle trot to get young girl used to riding in groups. This ride is part ways along a very busy lake, so she will be introduced to lots of boats, water skiing, probably jet skis.
All depends…when I’m with my daughter , it’s hard to tell what we might do! But rides with her include a lot of cantering. Rides with my neighbors are only walking, pretty much no matter where we ride. When I ride solo, it’s a mix of whatever the footing allows…sometimes we mosey, sometimes we book thru the woods. Either at a running walk or a canter.
Ride as you want. My boss has pretty serious knee problems and is just walking at this point. I rode with her while I was healing from surgery. Now, I walk,trot and canter as I feel comfortable and the footing allows.
I mostly mosey unless I am getting one fit for hunting. I like to admire the wildlife and flowers, 40+ years of foxhunting gives me my fair share of speed.
[QUOTE=Beverley;7672287]
I mostly mosey unless I am getting one fit for hunting. I like to admire the wildlife and flowers, 40+ years of foxhunting gives me my fair share of speed.[/QUOTE]
ha, ha and for me… 15 years of endurance on front runner horses, I never got to enjoy the scenery and I went to some awesome places. I do like to trot when the footing is good and my horse can walk fast so we like to look around. We have alot of wildlife in our area.
[QUOTE=morgan01;7672363]
We have alot of wildlife in our area.[/QUOTE]
Ditto!! That’s my main reason for any nervousness of speeding through the woods with my daughter…round the corner and run into a deer, bear, rattlesnake, turkey, who knows!!
Actually, avoiding the wildlife collisions is more likely at speed, they can hear you coming from farther off (well, not the snakes, they feel the vibrations, but they won’t bother you anyway!).
For me it depends on the day. Some days a nice long walk is just what I (or my horse) needs. It’s relaxing, it’s peaceful and it can put conditioning miles on without any joint stress.
Other days, depending on who I’m riding with, I do quite a bit of trotting and cantering with a few hand gallops thrown in.
I don’t mind riding slower if I’m with people who need it, but I do enjoy moving out and my OTTB likes a good gallop too!
Our trails are multi use and limestone. Most of the year they are hard as rock. We usually just walk and talk. Our horses like it and we can enjoy the scenery. If its been rainy we will jog. Hard to canter, you never know when a deer or a cyclist will come around a corner lol
I’d say I mosey most of the time because those are “active rest” or goof-off days after schooling in the arena at home. Or, I’m hanging out with friends and we want to chit-chat. Even though we’re moseying, I’m still working on moving off my leg, seeing how little rein I can use, seeing if my telepathic powers can tell him where to go. Sometimes I tie up the reins and WTC with no hands. Sometimes I ride bareback. Sometimes I gallop through the woods. It just depends. I’m very careful whom I ride with - I don’t ride with yahoos or those who don’t consider footing on behalf of their horses, or who gallop hell bent for leather in 100-degree weather, or who trespass.
Mostly walk now. I used to do a variety of gaits. But I enjoy the mosey more now, and also the park I normally ride in has a walk only rule, so that’s what we do!
We usually have at least one pack horse with us and loping a pack horse is just not good for the packs… we do some random trotting but mostly we walk at a decent clip. We’re riding almost exclusively in the wilderness, on rocky/narrow/windy trails so more speed isn’t necessary.
I invariably ride alone. She is not spooky at all, but does not like other horses coming up behind her at speed and that is something she needs, more ‘socialising’.
But I almost never mosey along. If I were in a group of lolly-gagging ladies I might mosey while we yak away.
I ride seriously and mindfully. I walk her fast, I walk her slowly. I use hills as advantageously as I can. I do dressage lateral moves, I take her off the trail over logs, between trees, and all the time using weight or seat alone and almost no hand. Down the steep hills I count the trees, halt at one, back up a few steps, trot, halt, back, walk, etc. with as minute movements as possible.
Up the steep hills I go up laterally, to strengthen her pushing hip, or I package her up and trot her up, all with fitness in mind.
I think I am an out of the box type of rider. It is all about lightness and obedience.
I do trot a lot, canter where the footing is nice, larger and smaller gaits.
But they are harder because she’s a hard worker and forward. I think I’ve given her quite a good school at the end of it.
Wish I had the life of cowboy mom - my inner cowboy could be let out.
It depends
DH and I ride mostly just together, I hate large groups. When it’s just us we gait a fair amount (flat walk and some running walk). We canter and hop logs. We dog walk and take pictures.
If it’s a 2-3 hr ride on good sandy trails/good footing we’ll truck along at 6-7-8 MPH those gaited horses just glide.
If it’s mountain riding we’re walking and letting them pick their way.
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