Quarter Horses Don't Do Dressage!

Some days it seems that Halo begs to differ. The angle of this photograph doesn't do her justice, but she has a big, floaty trot. I don't know if it will diminish as she gets older and bulks up in typical quarter horse fashion. Or will she even do that? I think part of what drew me to her is that she looks a little bit like a thoroughbred, albeit a minuscule one.



Halo's walk is also nice. I think I'm going to have to put bell boots on her when I start working her in earnest, because she tracks up quite far, especially at the walk. I've always heard that it's a good thing for dressage for a horse to track up well, since it means that the horse's hind end can be more easily engaged. For non-horsey people, basically that means she's rear wheel drive.



I should add here that as a photographer, I seem to have a real knack for getting animals' butts in focus better than their heads. Case in point:



Seeing this canter picture makes me look forward to riding her in a couple of years. I know it won't be the same as my old TB's gigantic canter, but I think she'll be comfortable and agile. She's already pretty good at flying lead changes out in the field. Of course not everything she does makes me excited about riding her...




But I'm sure we'll have lots of silly fun, regardless.