I will add on that with our horses doing “everything” that we worked on fitness and used ALL the gaits while going around the ring. If you have a good sized arena, you will want to do your practices for any of the disciplines you show and do all the speeds possible in each gait.
With the Driving horses, we are expected to do two walks, three trots, and our horses do WP canter, english canter, a hand gallop and a real gallop. We can do them ridden or driven, and do. Horse is to accept that reins will let them move forward, and then take them up for these speeds “within” a gait. You can have heads collected, allow noses out to get more forward. If you work at it enough, horse gets comfortable going along briskly in a "ground covering canter, then gallops, back to a pleasure type canter or trot, as you ask. It is NO BIG DEAL to do gait changes, so NOTHING TO GET EXCITED about, and they settle. Not rooting or head high, to go again.
Sometimes you want to save the faster work till EVERYTHING ELSE has been worked on, so he is doing his gallop work and tires faster in the big circles. He canters or gallops, trots, and gets rather fatigued!! However he MUST keep going until ASKED to slow down. Doing that faster work while tired, seems to take a lot of the fun out of going fast!!
This is what I call changing it up, some of everything in one longer session. None of ours get “one hour” works by the clock! We can be polishing up a lot of stuff, and finally get to the cantering collected, hand galloping, then more cantering. Our ring is large, so they do get some milage done with this kind of work. You may want to use boots, tired legs may get sloppy in speedy work.
The above is done with a bit in his mouth, because I might want to use those things in a ride-off or showing them to others. I am also building his wind with these works, getting him fitter, breathing better.
The mechanical hack is used when there are things in the ring to work with, poles, barrels. Horse is expected to walk, trot, be calm as he goes around the items in the “drilling” needed to keep him sharp for these games classes. If he ACTS hot or silly, well that is about 5 more rounds at a flat walk for him!! He can be happy, but he STILL must be obedient whatever tack is on his head! He gets to run when ASKED, not before, and no being stupid after. We really don’t do a lot of speed in games practices.
I would suggest you might do your pleasure riding practice, then swap bridles and walk some barrels. He should stay levelheaded, obedient. Then swap back to pleasure equipment, and ride asking for pleasure gaits. I think it is a GREAT way to train horses to “work as asked”. Horse should have no problem going from speed to pleasure and back the other way, if you TRAIN him that way. Other kids used to whine they couldn’t slow their animals down after games to do pleasure, so we had to put pleasure first in the classes. Funny, there were some folks that never had that problem! We were among them, because horses were obedient to what we asked of them.
I have had some real firecrackers, and if you train them right, they do swap from slow to fast to slow, if you ask them to.
Sorry, I am going to say running the horse as fast as she can go over the fall fields is NOT the best way to get her running under control. Do your work in the arena, on a track, with limits for her. HOW she runs is up to you, and it is best learned in a controlled area like an arena. Free running might just wreck a lot of the work you have put into her. Teach her to run fast and slow when ASKED, get her tired and WILLING to stop easily on light reins when you want her to in the arena, before doing any wild-eyed runs cross-country or down the road.
