Largo race preliminary poll - DQ for gait

[motorgypsy]

choose 1

[Candice Burger]

Ok, my last slant on this. The horse has to LARGO period. Not walk, corto, canter, gallop, fino, trocha, trot, pace. LARGO. About the only one I think a rider could get away with would be a corto and he wouldn't qualify anyway!

[motorgypsy]

True - but unfortunately for the most part the largo race doesn't get the real trail largo horses and with the chaos in the arena they are more prone to break gait as they have each year. It was better this year but there certainly were plenty of horses who did some cantering (and some finoing I might add :roll: :roll: ) So we have to have some sort of penalty and the safest thing we've come up with is to go to the center, regain gait, and reenter at the same point. Ether that or ignore small infraction and DQ major ones at judges discretion because stopping is too dangerous.

[Cindy]

So we have to have some sort of penalty and the safest thing we've come up with is to go to the center, regain gait, and reenter at the same point. Ether that or ignore small infraction and DQ major ones at judges discretion because stopping is too dangerous.


I disagree. I think the safest thing is the one that Carol said worked well in Vegas and that is to get back in gait and resume the race. Going into the center causes a hazard when you go back into the arena.

[paintedhorizon]

I agree with this, however, how many times before they are DQed? That's the big thing.

So we have to have some sort of penalty and the safest thing we've come up with is to go to the center, regain gait, and reenter at the same point. Ether that or ignore small infraction and DQ major ones at judges discretion because stopping is too dangerous.


I disagree. I think the safest thing is the one that Carol said worked well in Vegas and that is to get back in gait and resume the race. Going into the center causes a hazard when you go back into the arena.

[Cindy]

If a horse break that many times and has to slow to gait he should not even be in the running for any kind of placement unless the other horses are not largoing. It takes care of itself.

[paintedhorizon]

So you think no matter how many times someone breaks gait they shouldn't be DQed?

If a horse break that many times and has to slow to gait he should not even be in the running for any kind of placement unless the other horses are not largoing. It takes care of itself.

[motorgypsy]

Cindy a horse that cantered at least half the arena for all laps was I think second last year and could have easily won. They are so hyped up with the noise and excitgement that nearly everyone breaks a few times. Fixing a minimal break in gait in the race lane is fine but if an extended distance canter is not penalized it will win or come close to winning - at least it did for the two previous years. You don't really want someone just to show that it is legal to go out there with a barrel horse and smoke everyone at a gallop just because they can do so with no penalty. The horse that goes to the center and reestablishes gait should obviously wait for a safe time to reenter the race lane. It's just like a nascar race. They go into the pits and they come back out again. We participated in one largo race that did this and it worked fine. I'm sure there are other safe solutions but to not penalize break in gait in some way and have a mostly cantering horse win cannot be good for the breed. I don't like the stopping in the race lane though. That is dangerous.

Oh - I don't mean to give the impression that people are deliberately cantering their horses in the largo race - they aren't - but as I said - it is really loud and chaotic and some horses just become frightened and canter - a LOT. This is one reason we participate. Our horses really do have good largos but it's a chance to expose them to a very stressful situation and so we don't win - that's OK as long as they behave and stay in gait even if it is slow.

[Cindy]

If the horse cantered half the arena each lap then it did not go back down into gait and resume the race did it? One cannot canter for half the class if every time it canters it is told and made to go back down into gait. Give the judges the discretion of eliminating a horse if they feel it has not run the race properly. You are trying to nit pick too much and create a rule for everything. It is not that hard if you keep it simple.

[CarolU]

I agree with Cindy...remember KISS.

Also, they may not be cantering but be in flying pace or trotting and the judges will want to DQ those too. I'd just leave it with the 1/4 arena out of gait, and then it can be any other gait.

The self-correcting gait rule puts the onus on the rider, and yes, you do loose time when you fix the gait. If you try to put a number on how many times out of gait, you still have the problem of who will keep track of that, and it will be argued.

[Soltera]

When Largo Racing really takes off, I bet we'll have to reduce it to something like "three non gaited strides of any type and you're out". Keep KISSing this as we attract more real trailgaiters (hahaha), and as the Largo Race horse develops. I think we're really onto something here!

[motorgypsy]

We all knew what we were supposed to do but this particualar horse was just misbehaving and going in and out of gait - largo to canter to largo to canter for significant distances. There were several doing this but one was cantering half the time. This is why it seems that the judge should have the discretion to disqualify a horse that isn't following the rules. An instantaneous break with gait reestablished was another problem because the horse that did this finished ahead of a horse that was more consistant in gait which seemed wrong also so we had two problems - one in which a horse cantered for long distances even though the rider was trying to get the horse back in gait, and the other, the horse momentarily broke gait repeated like on every turn. This is why I'd like to see the judges allowed to DQ for long distance gait breaks or multiple gait breaks - so many that it's really obvious the horse can't maintain the largo gait. There's no need to be nitpicky for a hop but 15 or twenty breaks in a race is just too much. It was such a pleasure to see gait being much more consistent this year in the final race.