What is the correct pace for hunter courses?

The correct pace for hunter courses is one of the most discussed and most misunderstood elements of hunter training — the pace that produces consistent hunter distances, maintains the rhythmic quality that judges reward, and allows the horse to jump in the beautiful, effortless arc that hunter competition values. Hunter pace is not a specific speed in miles per hour or meters per minute but a specific feeling of forward, rhythmic canter appropriate to the horse's size, stride, and the fence height of the specific division. The classic description of correct hunter pace is the pace at which the horse can maintain a rhythmic three-beat canter throughout the entire course, arriving at each fence on a comfortable distance without the rider needing to significantly adjust pace between fences. This pace is typically described as a working canter — forward enough that the horse is genuinely moving with impulsion rather than flatly going through the motions, but not so forward that the horse is rushing or that the distances consistently come up too long. The specific pace appropriate for different divisions varies: green hunters and children's hunters are typically ridden at a somewhat quieter pace appropriate to the lower fence heights and the less experienced horses and riders, while open hunters and high hunters require a more forward, ground-covering pace appropriate to the larger fences. The pace that is correct for a specific horse is the pace at which that horse consistently produces comfortable distances to the fences set at the height of its division — a horse with a naturally long stride may need a quieter pace than one with a shorter stride, because the longer stride covers more ground per canter beat and produces longer distances at the same theoretical pace. Finding this horse-specific correct pace is a primary focus of hunter training and one that develops through the accumulated experience of riding many fences at various paces and observing the distances they produce.