Hello!
I recently bought a rising 5 year old icelandic mare - she's 5 gaited, and her preferred gait under saddle is tolt. We're working on trot at the moment - she offers it fairly easily, particularly when she's a bit tired, so we usually do a few circuits at the end of every schooling session to let her know it's OK to do, but we're not at the stage where we can really worry about collecting, straightening, or doing anything much beyond just getting the legs moving in a diagonal!
Trouble is, her trot is so ruddy smooth I can never tell when I have it! There's a slight, but hardly noticeable change from tolt to trot, and it gets a bit more bumpy, but that's it. I have to ask folk to watch to confirm when we've got it. I also cannot post to it. I dont know if that is just because she doesn't have a firm rhythm yet, or if it's because her little legs so so fast I just can't keep up, but I just can't find it!
At the moment I lean forward and up out of the saddle to help her loosen and find the gait, but the day will come when I want to help her sustain it and get a rhythm - and if I can't cope with that when trying to post I don't know how to expect her to! As she's young though I don't really want to just use sitting trot and have me stuck to her back!
Although she's my fist icey, she's not the first I've ridden, and I've never had any problems posting to their trots before, so I don't know if this is just a young unbalanced horse thing, or if its her trot specifically?
Anyone else had this problem with their gated horses? Is this something that will improve as she gets older, or does her smooth trot mean I'm always going to struggle?
I recently bought a rising 5 year old icelandic mare - she's 5 gaited, and her preferred gait under saddle is tolt. We're working on trot at the moment - she offers it fairly easily, particularly when she's a bit tired, so we usually do a few circuits at the end of every schooling session to let her know it's OK to do, but we're not at the stage where we can really worry about collecting, straightening, or doing anything much beyond just getting the legs moving in a diagonal!
Trouble is, her trot is so ruddy smooth I can never tell when I have it! There's a slight, but hardly noticeable change from tolt to trot, and it gets a bit more bumpy, but that's it. I have to ask folk to watch to confirm when we've got it. I also cannot post to it. I dont know if that is just because she doesn't have a firm rhythm yet, or if it's because her little legs so so fast I just can't keep up, but I just can't find it!
At the moment I lean forward and up out of the saddle to help her loosen and find the gait, but the day will come when I want to help her sustain it and get a rhythm - and if I can't cope with that when trying to post I don't know how to expect her to! As she's young though I don't really want to just use sitting trot and have me stuck to her back!
Although she's my fist icey, she's not the first I've ridden, and I've never had any problems posting to their trots before, so I don't know if this is just a young unbalanced horse thing, or if its her trot specifically?
Anyone else had this problem with their gated horses? Is this something that will improve as she gets older, or does her smooth trot mean I'm always going to struggle?