Pacing TWH

[hannah_rain]

Hi, I've ended up on this page/forum a few times before and would like some thoughts/advice on my current situation....

First let me introduce myself and my gelding 

I am 26, have been a horse lover since birth but sadly I am the only one in my family w/the horse obsession. I had 3 different horses in my teenage years at different times and never had any formal lessons. I went 10 yrs being horseless (15 yrs to age 25) anyway I never competed in any horse sports until I was 23 and had the opportunity to resume riding w/some new friends and also to ride competitively in a few LD races (on Arabs). I've always been a fan of TWH's personalities and alot of them are black, lol and I'm also a sucker for black horses.....I ended up falling in love w/a simple picture-less ad of a young 3 yr old gelding who was for sale for a measly 300.00 3 hrs away....had no intentions of becoming a horse owner anytime in the near future due to not really being able to afford it. Anyway it's been over a year since then and he is the greatest investment ever, he's the perfect horse for me. The problem is he paces.... I rarely see him do anything but pace even riderless. I intend to finish training him Clinton Anderson's methods to get him to gait, I have his DVD set on gaited horses and have been very impressed w/the results thus far but haven't yet got to the actual gait part of the exercises. Clinton believes letting a horse pace will not harm them in the meantime. I have been actively conditioning him for a LD ride this December and he's doing great other than he only paces.....my question is am I wrong by wanting to complete 1 LD on him this season before focusing on gait training? What do you all think? Any other info anyone would like to share, please do.

Thanks!

Hannah

[shawneesunrisefarm]

Hi Hannah and welcome.
   I saw your post on the gaited endurance board.  I do not think you will harm your horse physically by allowing him to pace in an LD before you get his gait fixed. BUT and this is a big "but", I think you will further ingrain his hardwired propensity to pace if you put him a stressful situation such as a race start where there are a lot of hot Arabians that are galloping, trotting and cantering.
   So, my advice to you is spend the time fixing the gait and conditioning him first.  You wont hurt him, imho but you wont be helping either of you in the long run.
my 2 cents.
Please come back and we will help you in any way.
  I really cant stand the pace.  It can be changed, but it is work. I believe the key is vertical flexion and the key to that is horizontal flexion.  My favorite, but not my best, twh mare just finished her first 55 miler. I have worked for 2 years on her gait. The farrier made a mistake in making her heel a little short which changed her break over. She thought it was now a better idea to pace. I worked for weeks pre race and got her almost back to where she was. Then we threw a shoe, lost and easy boot and threw another shoe. I let her pace on purpose and posted, double yuck, to protect her exposed hoof. It worked and she took 7th without any hoof problems.
   However, instead of racing her in 2 weeks, I will let her set the rest of the season, let her feet grow and then make sure her gait is spot on before she is raced again next year. This is a challenge for me to let her set as we have plans for her for 100's in the future, but I will do what is best for her, regardless of my "plans"
  You can see the full race report here on the endurance racing section under "cave country Canter 2009"
Keith
Shawnee Sunrise Farm