I dont let my horses rip up hills like some trail riders I know do, but my horses do tend to prefer trotting or cantering up as opposed to walking and I dont see anything wrong with it. I guess it depends on the horse. Ive been on endurance rides where the people I was riding with thought it was too hard on their horse to go fast up a big hill but mine does it fine and seems to have plenty of energy left at the top.
Another one …
… who tends to go faster up hill and slower downhill.
And I think a lot of it does depend on the horse.
My hundred mile horse, Ned, is a grand hill climber but slow as molasses going down. Just not his thing, and while we MIGHT jiggy-jog a gentle down hill slope, more likely we’ll be walking. On both conditioning rides and during competition.
However, we live in mountain country and actually do fartleks up our hills, so yes, he can boogie up a hill and has the “bottom” to do so. I wouldn’t start up a hill faster than a walk that I didn’t think I could make it to the top to, easily, staying in that gait.
My young horse is a much better down hill horse and I look forward to the day that I’m passing horses like Ned on the downhills, because this little boy just sits and jogs with absolutely no apparent strain.
If I didn’t train in mountains, we certainly wouldn’t be going up hills fast.
However, I don’t have sand to train in, and I betcha I am going WAAAAY slower in the deep sand than those of you who condition in it all of the time. Guaranteed.
Whatever works.
We were training with the military police horse officers and we always were told to rate our horses uphill and that we could go faster downhill, with well conditioned and trained horses.
We trained in huge downhill slides, where horses would start with a jump of several feet into loose dirt and slide/scoot all the way down, with us leaning forward a little and balancing and keeping the horses straight.
If your horse got sideways, you both would roll down the hills.
If you leaned back, any little tripping would send you over the horse’s head.
Many of those soldiers were beginners and they ponied-up and learned in a hurry, although there were some misshaps.
The horses fared fine, were used to all that and I don’t remember not one injury to them during that hill work.
We kids thought it was great fun.
As you say, that was very much specific to those ground conditions and the situation.
It is hard to lay ground rules to apply to all conditions and horses.
I remember theory where uphills are good for cardio-vascular training if done at speed, but that trotting/cantering downhill would be hard on the horses’ joints and may reduce the horses’ competition soundness over time.
I’ve had a couple of horses with knee problems. They all go uphill great, but struggle on the downhills. So I’m guessing that downhills are tough on the knees, and I’d listen to how the horse feels about going downhill rather than trying to set the speed myself.
I don’t think I’d have been brave enough to do what Bluey describes! :eek: I’m too big a chicken for that, even if the horse were willing!
