Five cross-country paces, and why the fastest horse is rarely the quickest

The facts

Framework

Five distinct cross-country paces, from trot to full gallop

Source

Eventing coach Caroline Moore, who sadly died in March 2025

In use at the top

Libby Seed credited the same approach at Mars Badminton this year

Coach's record

Competed to 5*, co-owned Allstar B, on whom Ros Canter took 2018 World Equestrian Games gold

Legacy

Her Performance Mentoring Programme continues

The idea is simple to say and harder to ride. Instead of one canter that speeds up and slows down, your horse carries five separate settings, and you can call up any of them within a stride or two. Trot, kept in reserve for the questions that need care. A short, powerful, bouncy canter with the shoulder lifted. A bigger, more forward canter with real control in it, the sort you would want for a related distance or a skinny. A ground-covering gallop. And top speed, saved for the long gaps between fences.

The counterintuitive bit is where the time goes. A horse with a huge top gear who fights the change of pace loses seconds at every fence, setting up, arguing, recovering. A horse who shortens and lengthens when asked can be genuinely quicker round a course while never going as fast at any single point. If your horse takes hold and will not come back, that is not a bravery problem. It is a gear problem, and it costs you time and safety in equal measure.

For grassroots riders the safety return matters more than the clock. The short, powerful canter is what you want at anything upright, and at anything with a surprise on landing, a ditch or a drop or a step down. Trot is the honest answer for a young or unsure horse at water, a big step or a first ditch. Gallop suits wide soft fences and sticky or ridged ground. Riding a soft, long gallop stride at an upright gate is how a green horse ends up jumping flat and dangerously.

You can school all of this without a single cross-country fence. Ride the transitions between the paces on the flat, in a field, on a hack, up a gentle hill. Name them out loud if it helps. If your horse will only offer two of the five, that is your winter's work, and it is worth more than another entry fee.

What this means for you

First-season 80 or 90 rider

Before you enter, check your horse will come back to a short, bouncy canter within three strides. If not, book a schooling session rather than a competition.

Pony Club family with a keen pony

The pony who pulls is not necessarily the fast pony. Work on downward transitions between canters, not on going faster.

Anyone hiring a cross-country course

Spend the first half of the session on pace changes on the flat between fences. Jumping more fences is not the same as schooling.

Riders on heavy or ridged going

Recognise which fences need the longer gallop stride and which need the short canter. Riding everything the same way on bad ground is where falls come from.

Yes you can definitely see the difference in a horse when filming, and would recommend people to watch their x country videos back to see how they perform.

What to do

1. Ride five clearly different canters in a field this week and note which ones your horse genuinely offers

   Next schooling ride

2. Count how many strides it takes to get from your fastest canter back to your shortest. Aim to shorten that number

   Over the next month

3. Walk your next course looking for the fences that need the short powerful canter: uprights, ditches, steps down, water

   On course walk

4. If your horse has no brakes between gears, spend the money on a lesson rather than an entry

   Before you next enter

5. Ask your coach to name the pace they want at each fence, so you both use the same language

   Next lesson