Satori Center

In The Natural Horse: Foundations for Natural Horsemanship by Jaime Jackson, I've come across several intriguing notions.

Here is one, p39:

Among wild horses, changes in speed are not always accompanied by corresponding or commensurate changes in tempo particularly during extraordinary locomotive behavior.  The reason is that the horse prefers to change the length of its strides -- as opposed to moving its legs faster -- in order to move faster or slower.  It does this by altering its cadence, that is , the relative position or height of its limbs, with each step.  As the horse elevates its cadence, it steps higher but not as far forward; conversely, as it lowers its cadence, it steps father forward although not as high.

What he describes 'cadence' as being is the behavior we are all looking for when we talk about lengthening or shortening, extending or collecting the horse (I'm just not sure that's what 'cadence' is really defined as...) 

I think of is as 'conservation of energy.'  There is a fixed amount of 'energy' in the path the foot travels in its arc of travel.  To conserve that energy, if the stride gets longer, then the foot travels closer to the ground.  If the foot is lifted higher, it travels less farther forward.  It's like a length of string - it doesn't change length, but it does change shape.

In any event, what I find very interesting is that it is natural and preferable for horses to easily change their length of stride -- what does that say about most training programs?  specifically, why does this become something that is hard to do?  (why would I be saying it's 'hard to do?' because hunters, jumpers, and dressage folks all spend an inordinate amount of time attempting to change the length of stride of horses!)

What is your experience with this?