Hello Everyone,
I had promised in other articles that we would talk about the GAITED
Horse gaits. I will be doing that this month.
We are going to talk about most of the gaits today. I am going to make
it as simple as possible. Gaited horses are not that complicated.
People always try to make it sound so complicated and the reality is
that it is not.
We have already talked about the walk and trot of the other breeds. But
I am going to refresh again.
The walk: 4 beat gait. Right Hind (RH), right front (RF), left hind
(LH), left front (LF).
The Trot: 2 beat gait. RH and LF move at the same time. LH and RF move
at the same time. The trot is a diagonal gait with a moment of
suspension.
Now lets talk about the basic gaits of gaited horses. These gaits make
up what most all gaited horses do.
The Running walk: The running walk is the same foot falls as the normal
walk. Simple! Right? The running walk often gets the classic head nod,
but not always. The running walk has way more speed and reach of stride
than the normal walk.
The Rack: The Rack is the same foot falls as the Running walk just with
not as much reach and length of stride.
The Fox Trot: The Fox Trot is diagonal pairs of feet moving close to
the same time like the trot but the front feet land a second before the
hind feet. This gives the horse a 4 beat rhythm and no moment of
suspension. Which makes this gait way smoother than the normal trot.
The Pace: The Pace is a lateral 2 beat gait. Meaning that the RH and RF
move at the same time and the LH and LF move a the same time. The Pace
is not usually considered a saddle gait because there is a moment of
suspension and a jarring side to side feeling that makes it not as
comfortable to ride as a nice saddle gait.
The Stepping Pace: The Stepping Pace is also a lateral gait like the
pace. But the hind lands an instant before the same side front foot.
This gait is often confused by gaited horse riders as a running walk or
other desirable saddle gaits.
The Paso Fino breed has names for their gaits like: The Paso Fino,
which is like a very short strided rack. The Paso Corto, basically a
normal rack. The Paso Largo which is like the running walk and the
Trocha which is like the fox trot.
The Peruvian does the Paso llano which is like the rack, Sobreando
which is like the stepping pace and the Hauchano which is like the
pace.
The Icelandic does the Tolt which is the rack or running walk and the
Flying Pace which is a very fast pace. In the Icelandic breed the pace
is considered a favorable gait, but not in most other gaited breeds.
The difference of the walking gaits has a lot to do with the length of
stride. The running walk is just a walk, but with way more speed and
length of stride than non gaited horses can do. The rack and running
walk are basically the same but again the rack does not have as great a
length of stride than the running walk. This means that not all horses
can do as good a running walk as others because of conformational
reasons. But they will be able to do a good rack and other gaits also.
So as you can see horses only have 4 legs and so they can only move
them in so many ways. So most of the horse’s gaits land somewhere in
the range of gaits that I have talked about today. It is really pretty
simple. We are just looking for a good even gait, it really does not
matter what you call it.
I hope this helps you to understand the gaited horse’s gaits better.
I teach Natural Gaited horse Clinics. My focus is on getting the horse
soft in the rib cage and shoulders to allow the horse to stride better
and get the desired smooth saddle gaits. If you are interested in
attending one of my Natural Gaited Horse Clinics please email me at
chelsie@chelsienaturalhorsemanship.com
Please email me if you have any questions on this or any other subject
and I will feature it in one of my articles!
Thank you for reading,
Chelsie Kallestad
www.chelsienaturalhorsemanship.com
928-713-3468
