I've heard the term used interchangably. I have however heard of a "high lope" but never a "high canter". Seems to indicate different speeds to a lope.

We lope.. lope circles.. canter circles just doesn't sound right, and I think I'd just get dizzy!

Rancher, I really loved the history lesson! I was "out of" the horse scene for 20 years or so before my daughter fell in love with Lil Bit. At the time, the colt was just over a yearling in age. But hey! no problem, I can break him! I didn't take into account that I don't bounce as well in my 40's as I did in my teens! But, Lil Bit must have known, cause he has only ever thrown me once and that was really my fault. I grew up on horses is Southern California. I was a "pony clubber". For folks that don't know, that is a club designed to teach kids from the ground up about horses. The "mode" of riding is english hunt seat and the kids go to 3 day events. These events include Dressage, cross country jumping and stadium jumping. Now being that we were also "westerners", we barrel raced, bent those poles and attended rodeos. So, I guess I grew up, "bi-lingual" so to speak. Coming back into the scene after some time, I have found that now, everybody is "bi-lingual". John Lyons uses and sells in his "training package" a full cheek snaffle bit. We who have ridden in those funny little saddles with no horns have been using them for a long time! Canter and Lope now have pretty much the same meaning. There are Aussie trainers, such as Clint Anderson, who uses all of the English vernacular yet rides in those saddles with horns! And, now you have western riders that are teaching their horses dressage, because the discipline is so very good for both the horse and rider. I think our "melting pot" has kinda melted together in the horse world. Well, Lil Bit is bi-lingual. My daughter was just horrified with the word, "canter", and refused to use it! "Mom! The word is LOPE!", this given in all of her 14 year old wisdom and knowledge! So, Lil Bit "lopes" for the kid and "canters" for me. If you put Lil Bit in a round pen, he knows his voice commands. Walk, Trot and Canter! Whoa, means come in and get a cookie! and Stand means stop and stand. I honestly don't mind the "melting pot". Just means that we can sift through the best of all worlds to find what works best for us! Oh...I now ride in an Aussie Stock Saddle, without the horn! Some day you may get the story about the fight between me, a saddle horn and a bra, but not this time! Hope everybody has fun with this topic! Pattie CoLady

I don't think it matters to the horse. When I am loping my horse, he may think he is cantering but we are propably loping. He would rather gallop. I think that is faster than the other two. my 2 cents

George, as I understand it canter is pretty much for the group that rides without horns... and it is a tad faster than a lope... a lope is what folks do that ride with a horn, it is slower than a canter, but both can be extended...so the sort answer is they are both the same, it is a potato or a potatoe…lol…I know some will disagree with this answer as I am only a man… not capable of much….lol… JM

Most of those who have majored in English literature, and many more besides, know that Chaucer's Canterbury Tales were told by a group of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury to visit the shrine of England's famous martyr Thomas à Becket. Many pilgrims other than Chaucer's visited Canterbury on horse, and phrases such as Canterbury gallop, Canterbury pace, and Canterbury trot described the easy gait at which they rode to their destination. The first recorded instance of one of these phrases, Canterbury pace, is found in a work published before 1636. However, in a work written in 1631 we find a shortened form, the noun Canterbury, meaning “a canter,” and later, in 1673, the verb Canterbury, meaning “to canter.” This verb, or perhaps the noun, was further shortened, giving us the verb canter, first recorded in 1706, and the noun canter, first recorded in 1755. Reasonable definations might be: Canter: A smooth gait, especially of a horse, that is slower than a gallop but faster than a trot. Lope: an easy natural gait of a horse resembling a canter When I first started riding horses, about the time we dropped an atomic bomb in Japan, we loped, galloped and straight out ran a horse, and we never cantered. My first memory of a canter was many years later when some folks on little saddles with no horn, said they were riding at the canter. I picture 3 or 4 cowboys trying to get an old mama longhorn out of 100 acres of mesquite brush. Two are going to take the long side and tells the other one to head through the edge of the mesquites at “the canter”. Just does not seem to fit. He either loped or ran through the edge of mesquites. So here come guys like Clinton “OK?” Anderson telling people riding western saddles to keep their horse at a canter. So how many of you canter vrs lope your horse and in the big scheme of things is there really a difference? Not talking about the English riders, just plain ole quarter horse folks. I think some of these television trainers read a book and then declared themselves horse experts.