I was just over there catching up on posts... seems they've moved on.
I was following along on the issue of hills they're talking about... About whether you should force them to walk up hills or allow them to speed up.
CTR may have rules, and that's fine, I guess you do what the rules say, but here's what I think:
Let the horse seek his easiest gait unless that upsets the group you're in.
Granted, I give Bay a lot of informed consent on trail. He's experienced, I trust him, and he doesn't choose to do things that are unsafe. If we're going along and he wants to speed up, if the group is OK with a little trotting, we do. Likewise, I don't make him trot if he's not feeling good. On hills, most of the time he walks up, but sometimes he speeds up and I think, again, as long as it's not causing an unsafe issue with horses behind me, if he's hauling my butt up a steep hill, he can choose to speed up if he wants. They speed up for a reason... so they can engage their rear end better. Pacewise, when I've gone with ecurbh, we haven't had a conflict. Bob does enforce the walk up, he doesn't like them to rush, so I'd check Bay a bit if Bob was in the group.
But I think "They should do the hill at the speed YOU say they should do it" is something of a power trip if you're only doing it to enforce who's in charge. You should be able to pull rank on the horse at any time, but I think they work better if you only do it for logical reasons. I wouldn't let the horse override what I say, and I get around that by not making any particular demand that he walk. "Take care of me, Bay, as easy as you can do it"
Certainly a horse that starts rocking and rolling at the bottom of the hill in anticipation of a hill (an example brought up over there) has a safety and obedience issue the rider needs to handle. But I don't think most horses do that.
I deleted my membership over there last night:).
I've always been told walking is up a hill is safer, moving faster, they could be more apt to slip. Belle always walked, Harley wants to break to a trot the closer he gets to the top when it's getting harder. A lot of how I decide is if I know the trial. If I'm not familiar with it, or the footing is hard to see for some reason, he walks, otherwise I do let him pick the pace as long as he keeps it reasonable. If he really gets to lunging up the hill I slow him back down. I think with him, it's mostly experience. He's gotten better and better as he has gained more experience.
Becky