Hey goodmorning you and Annie really got me confused now. About that diagonal gate….mine is in the 2 acre trap. I have two of em and that’s what sets up the trap because they are diagonal or parallel or maybe it’s perpendicular. Annie, I have tried my hand at stock horse competition and my big down fall is that counter canter stuff and I try to stay away from those horsemanship classes just for that reason. As far as I can tell those breed associations are as confused as the rest of us. I believe they like some others just make it up as they go just to impress us. I always thought canter was to lope what gown is to a dress or wallet to bill fold or barbed wire to bob wire. (It’s bob wire in Texas) Anyway, I posted this thing to have fun so let’s keep doing that and in the end maybe we will get this all figured out.

Rancher2, thanks for the great and interesting history lesson. Isn't our language a fine way of expressing ourselves??? LOL and to all else who have posted, i will say "THANKS for helping me feel normal" thought i was the only one on an equestrian site who didnt know the difference! happy trails and God bless all!

I know I ain't a cowboy; I'm just an educated country boy. I didn't have a quarter horse growing up. I had a American Saddle Horse/Tennessee Walker cross. When he didn't trot, he'd mosey. To me a canter is what one of them hornless saddle folk's horse is doing when it is moving alongside a horned saddle folk on a horse that is loping. Canter/loping is an attitude or frame of mind. Kinda like one of those half empty/half full thingys. Now I'll shut up and mosey out of here.

Ok, here's a question then. When we do horsemanship classes and we lope on the correct lead, example..going clockwise on the right lead. Why is it called a "counter canter" and not a "counter lope" when we are asked to pick up the opposite lead, example..going clockwise on the left lead? Just curious if anyone knows where this name came from. I have won many classes because my horse picks up the lead I ask him, and not "correct" lead...especially going down a straight line. In some of my Western pleasure classes, we have been ask to do an extended lope..move them on. Not the hand gallop that we do in English, but just a bit faster. That really screws up the "peanut rollers"!! LOL Great topic too! Annie

quote; Rancher2:Topaz darlin, Chaucer ain't exactly "modern" George is Chaucer old like most of the wimmin on here? I dont get it! Kadrn2, a diagonal gait, is that like the pony running to the northeast or southwest all the time??? or is it Diagonal Gate in the fence corner?

s it was eluded to earlier each discipline has different terminology i.e.: English, Western etc for a more complete definition of gates refer to your Breed Assoc. rule book - AQHA, APHA etc. the definitions are quite clear. A western horse does not Canter (canter being the 3 beat gate) or Trot (two beat diagonal gait of the horse where the diagonal pairs of legs move forward at the same time) for example. There are many different wordings used throughout various disciplines and many time used incorrectly for example Irons for English Stirrups for Western and so and so fourth but then I thought most knew that..my bad....

Boy,, I am learning so much today! This is cool,,thanks George for starting this topic..

Ok I will add my 2 cents worth , I have a gaited horse LOL A foxtrotter to be exact, which is a diagonal gait. I was always taught a canter was a 3 beat gait done at moderate speed, no faster that 10 MPH . The 4 beat canter is sometimes mistaken for a Lope, A true Lope is really a less elevated or collected canter , although horses will do a 4 beat which is really a gallop , a correct canter is always 3 beat . As explained to me by Lee Ziegler .

Topaz darlin, Chaucer ain't exactly "modern"

The ol cowboy that taught me to ride....he was in his 80s at the time and had worked on ranches all his life....told me to lope my horse in a circle. I didnt know what he meant by lope so asked. He told me it was a slow gallop. I was about 7 at the time. I never heard of "cantering" until I was in my mid-teens and started showing open shows. A "show canter" was about 1/2 the speed of a lope. And a whole lot of it was "cantering" on the front and trotting behind....in my mind.....an undesirable trait. A cowboy would cripple a horse if he used that kind of gait for much of his workday. I consider cantering a more modern term used for shows. JMHO