Conforming to the gaited crowd- for some reason it annoys me!

Because some horses just don't match up well at any speed. I've got one walker that I can slow down enough to ride with 80% of the horses out there (so long as they are not doing a wester pleasure walk!). My other one just physically can't go that slow, at a dog walk he's still doing 3mph, only time he goes slower is when grazing. Most people are doing in the 2-3mph range on their horses while trail riding which means he is only ridden with horses that have a faster walk.

What I do notice is people saying on these boards, you can train your horse to walk at any speed from .1mph to infinity(or some such). If your horses wont go that slow they are obviously ill trained. Such lovely statements from some. That being the case, please train your horses to at least walk up to 5mph over long distance so we can comfortably ride together.

No ill manners intended, but my mare naturally walks much faster than the other horses too. I ride about an hour by myself before joining up with anyone, in that time I make her mind her manners and work any snot out of her, get her in tune with me and then keep her at a quiet walk. Most horses I believe you CAN have walk slower, its not impossible just tricky. I've had all types of gaited horses from Walkers to Paso's walking calmly enough to be put on a trail chain.

Besides, some of the horses we ride with are older, and it would be unfair to ask them to keep up with a young and spunky 6 year old Racker

If I ride for an hour by myself to get my horse calmed down then I'm already 5 miles down the trail and just getting warmed up. Oh, I absolutely hate covering the same bit of trail twice in one day so I'm not likely to come back and get you. I might pick a point to stop and let my horse graze for a while so you can catch up.

Good point Blue Eyed Pony

Well, Darrin, I hope you have other people who can deal with that then :) Otherwise you might be a bit lonely on the trail.

I rarely ride with someone who doesn't have a walker because I don't particularly like the blend of gaited and non gaited horses. I also ride with like minded people or by myself so don't find it an issue at all.

You see, I will not and do not ask people to conform to my way of riding and expect the same in return.

What do yall think about this? I have a 6yo mare that's very spunky and when we ride im ushally working on things with her. She will speed up when another horse does but somtimes I just wanna ride and not deal with it so I tell kayla that if she rides with me not to gallop, or don't ride with me, but she does it anyway and it really pisses me off, it also does because she doesn't care about her horses. She will run them all day when there outta shape. And when she wants to me go riding bareback with her, she knows I only walk when I ride that mare bareback because she's hard to stay balanced on and she's hard to stop somtimes when she gets excited, and kayla wants to do nuthing but run. If that's what she wants to do don't ask me to ride! Oh and nether of are horses are gaited. I think im reasonable
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Sounds like someone I wouldn't ride with and yes, you are being reasonable.

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Yea, needless to say I ride alone alot
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