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Posted by eqqusowner
on 11/6/2009, 12:37 pm, in reply to "What makes for a smooth ride?"
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I would say more than anything a horse has to be relaxed. Conformationally, in general, I would say that a horse that is "downhill" will have a harder time being smooth just because more of their weight will be oriented towards the front and they will be heavier on the forehand and they might be bouncier. But that can be overcome with training. Also having ridden a couple of draft crosses which tend to be heavy on the forehand due to their conformation but both tend to have pretty nice, smooth trots overall, I can tell you the percheron/QH I have been riding for a year and a half 1-3 x a week and doing dressage with is just now learning to carry himself from behind and move forward and it makes such a difference, his trot smooths out and it is like riding a totally different horse.
I also have a gaited morgan, and while I agree with others that gaited is the way to go if you don't want to trot, I have seen plenty of unsmooth gaited horses when the horses are uncomfortable due to people who don't know how to ride properly and make the horses uncomfortable due to their tenseness/not sitting properly, unproperly fitting saddles, etc.
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