This has absolutely nothing to do with your anecdote, aquinas, except ... by association: one day several years ago, I comment that DC#1 (playing horsey) is trotting around the house. I get back, "no, I'm cantering", followed by a narrated demonstration of the exact sequences of steps that constitute trotting, cantering, galloping, etc.

No one in our family rides, nor have the kids been on horseback even at a zoo more than two or three times in their lives.

...pronounced like the long vowel and first letter of the alphabet...