# Did you know the difference between a lope and a canter is...



## Cat (Jul 26, 2008)

Huh? Not what I was taught. I was taught lope & canter were virtually the same foot fall - 3 beated gait. Lope being the slow western version (that some massacre into a 4 beat gait and make the horse look half lame) and the canter is the english version. 

Now a true gallop - that is a 4 beated gait.


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## Walkamile (Dec 29, 2008)

I watched the video and she did say that a four beated lope was incorrect and in a show, judges would take points away. She specified what I think we all believe to be true that a lope is slow, relaxed three beated gait with hind end propelling not front end pulling.

So Cat, don't fret, you are correct.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Funny, I always thought they were the same thing and Canter was the term used for english and Lope was the term used for western. Expert huh? I don't know about all that but I know that looks like absolutely no fun at all to ride. If I lope my horse it is because I want to cover more ground and get somewhere, not lope all day and travel a quarter mile.


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## Burgundian Mercenary (Jul 1, 2008)

Agree with Cat here. Canter is a 3-beat gait - look in any text book or just watch your horse. Gallop is 4-beat.


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## Spastic_Dove (Oct 4, 2007)

I'm pretty sure Spyder was being sarcastic. =P I have watched some of that woman's videos. Her title as "expert" is worrisome.


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## Skippy! (Dec 18, 2006)

Oh My God. I watched that whole video and kept wanting to smack that woman's hands... She kept bumping her horse with the bit and pulling his head in and then wiggling her heels for the duration of the video. Did anyone else notice this?

Truth be told, i couldnt listen to the content because of how frustrated and distracted i was at watching her play with his mouth when he probably has a HUGE port bit in there and it really freaking hurt to have the reins raised, lowered, and pulled constantly. When my horse is stopped and standing still I leave his mouth the heck alone. If i fidgit, i fidget with the horn or the buckle on the reins depending on my discipline im riding.

Sure.. i'll bump my horse back if they start to wiggle around.. but i didnt notice any sign of movement on the horse's side.. i just think she was nervous and playing with his mouth and the reins to have something to do with her hands... not cool. Fail for you "Expert".

... so what was the topic about again? LOL (just kidding, of course )


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## QHDragon (Mar 6, 2009)

The canter and the lope are the exact same thing, one is just slower and smoother than the other. 

I worked at a western pleasure barn for a while, and when I first saw those horses move I thought they looked lame too, but once I got on one I found that a well trained western pleasure horse is just that, a pleasure to ride.


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## G and K's Mom (Jan 11, 2008)

Oh Lord, I've seen her video's posted elsewhere..........scary stuff!


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## masatisan (Jan 12, 2009)

That lady is a hand talker and when she moves her hands she tugs the horses mouth! She dosn't even seem to realize she's doing it!


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## Dumas'_Grrrl (Apr 2, 2008)

The only thing that lady should be riding and counting is a pogo stick, one beat and NO reins!!!!


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## Spyder (Jul 27, 2008)

Spastic_Dove said:


> I'm pretty sure Spyder was being sarcastic. =P I have watched some of that woman's videos. Her title as "expert" is worrisome.


 
I was and was actually thinking she was trying to teach rolkur !


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## Spastic_Dove (Oct 4, 2007)

Haha. I think that is a common misconception while watching her =P


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## manhirwen (Jul 2, 2008)

When I got my first horse my trainer was teaching me to lunge and mentioned the different beats and leads. She did say that canter was 3 and lope was 4... Though she wasn't a very good trainer I still learned a lot.


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## Spastic_Dove (Oct 4, 2007)

manhirwen said:


> When I got my first horse my trainer was teaching me to lunge and mentioned the different beats and leads. She did say that canter was 3 and lope was 4... Though she wasn't a very good trainer I still learned a lot.



*HeadDesk*


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## manhirwen (Jul 2, 2008)

She wasn't good cause she hit the horses in the face a lot...


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## Spastic_Dove (Oct 4, 2007)

And thought that four beat lopes were okay lol


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

I would have to do some research on word origins but I'm with Smrobs. I thought they were the same thing just different origins, one english one western.

EDT: ok here is what I have found so far
canter
(KAN-turr)

A smooth easy gait for a horse, faster than a trot, but slower than a gallop.

This familiar word has a colorful past: After the murder of Thomas a Becket in England's Canterbury Cathedral in the twelfth century, Canterbury became a popular destination for countless religious pilgrims traveling on horseback, including those described in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. By the early seventeenth century, the expression Canterbury pace had come to mean the easy gait at which these faithful rode to their destination. By 1673, Canterbury had become a verb, and by 1706, had shortened to canter.

"Spotting a pile of clothes on the riverbank, Vanessa slowed her steed to a canter, then a trot, then stopped altogether and ever so casually got out her binoculars."
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I'm not finding a lot on Lope except that it is a synonym for canter and is from the old Norse word hlaupa meaning to leap.


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## Skippy! (Dec 18, 2006)

I found this on "Lope":



> [Q] “The word _lope_ packs a lot into four letters: I always think of it as running in a loose, relaxed way, with an infinite reserve. Did it emerge from the American West, as a short form of antelope, or is it from the French _loup_ meaning wolf, or something entirely different?”
> 
> [A] It looks as though it might have a connection, but the similarities are accidental and it has nothing to do with either wolves or antelopes. In sense and etymology, _lope_ is related to _leap_. It’s ancient, traceable to prehistoric Germanic. The Old English version of the word was _hleapan_, meaning to run, jump or throw oneself violently at something. This eventually changed into our modern _leap_, which kept the latter senses, but gave up the former to _run_, another ancient German word. In the fifteenth century, a Scots or northern English dialect relative of the Old English word moved into the standard language to form our modern *lope, for the sense of running with a long bounding stride that has something of leaping about it.* It’s also the source of _elope_, to run away to get married, and also possibly of _interloper_. This last word is said to have been coined in the sixteenth century on the model of the older and now obsolete _landloper_ for a vagabond, somebody who “runs through the land”.


Source: World Wide Words: Lope

Im still burned up about her busy little hands.. iwannasmackem!!


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

Whether we found out they are the same or different we got our word lesson in for the day :lol:
When I look up lope or canter in most dictionary's they say pretty much the same thing...A smooth easy gait for a horse, faster than a trot, but slower than a gallop.


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## bgood400 (Nov 10, 2008)

I couldnt watch the video but both the lope and canter have 3 beats. The canter is simply faster than the lope. I will have to see if I can find these videos elsewhere. It is pretty sad if she said one of them had 4 beats.


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## mayfieldk (Mar 5, 2008)

lol, sarcasm. 

Some people do it right, spyder. May only be 2%, though.


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