Anyone here have a lot of experience/knowledge of gaited horses?

[JCS]

My relatively novice boarder has a spotted saddle horse mare, and she’s interested in learning how to aid for the different gaits. I have never even ridden a gaited horse and don’t have the first clue.

Her horse naturally has walk, trot, canter, and her special gait, which is very lateral and looks to me like a pace, but I don’t know what it’s really called. I’ve been looking at some stills of her movement and it does really look like a pure lateral two-beat pace, rather than a four-beat, say, running walk.

The rider has a bad back and prefers the horse to pace rather than trot, but sometimes the horse trots and sometimes paces. Rider doesn’t know how to aid for a specific one of these gaits. She has found through trial and error that if the horse is trotting and she legs her forward, she’ll switch to a pace… But that’s not ideal, since one of the other goals with this horse is to encourage her to slow the hell down. She’s VERY fast.

So, two basic questions: How to aid for pace vs. trot? And, if I post a few still shots, can anyone tell me what gait the horse is doing?

Thanks!

[Leather]

Horse body position for trot (dorsiflex) vs pace (ventroflex) in a nutshell: https://youtu.be/jEoD6WqGgLM

Awesome book, which describes how to ride/cue for gaits: http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Gaited-Horses-methods-training-pleasure/dp/1580175627

Great articles on these sites:
http://www.lizgraves.com/lee_zieglers_classroom.html
http://www.lizgraves.com/articlen.html

Helpful videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/ivyschex/videos

[GallopHer]

i definitely recommend working with a gaited trainer - at very least for just a few lessons. Gaited horses often come with many gears and can be a bit complicated. I have gaited horses and I love them.

[walkinthewalk]

Ditto working with a quality gaited trainer.

I have had Walking Horses for 25 years. I am strictly a trail rider.

Spotted Saddle Horses have the same gaits as Tennessee Walkers.

It has been my observation, there are two reason why these two breeds trot (something that should be discouraged, IMHO):

1. They have been poorly started in their youth.

2. They have skeletal issues.

2.1 The ONLY time any of my Tennessee Walkers have broke into a trot was when they needed adjusted by a chiropractor.

For reasons I don’t pretend to understand, it is easier for them to trot when their bodies are in discomfort.

2.2 The exception to that might be in the pasture. I have one TWH who would imitate my Arab trotting, if he was behind the Arab in the pasture. He is my TWH that has never trotted under saddle and has that champagne-smooth running walk people lust after:)

There are other gaited breeds that perform variations of the trot as their intermedate gait. Like the Missouri Foxtrotter for example and I don’t pretend to understand them either:)

I just know that trying to find a quality gaited trainer to help your boarder with her Spottded Saddle Horse would be in both the horse’s and rider’s best interest.

Once you observe a handful of lessons, you should be able to assist from that point:)

Without knowing more of the horse’s history, there is also the chance the horse isn’t broke as well as the new owner was led to believe:confused:

[LittleHC]

I, too have a TWH that walks, trots, foxtrots, running walk, and canters. I have no problem with my horse trotting and am in fact, happy that he does. To me that is a sign that my horse is more balanced than a horse that is pacing. A book that has a wealth of information is the one recommended above by Lee Ziegler. It will explain the continum of gaits and where trotting and pacing fall on that line. My advice is what I have learned from Lee’s book, and that is to take it slow when asking for an easy gait. Be in a center balanced position and be happy with just a slow flat walk until the pacey horse can maintain that gait for an extended period of time. The book has excellent practice exercises for a pacey horse.

[Windy_Willow]

not familiar with riding many gaited horses, i have a lg pony that Iam riding for someone for a month, but i need a bit other than my plain eggbutt snaffle, is there a peticuliar bit thats common for gaited.I do not have a bunch of western type bits and they ride in a western saddle. its going to be for a small child to be able to ride the horse around in small areas at their farm.The horse is very gentle but needs a little more than a snaffle

[Char]

One of the biggest mistakes people make with gaited horses, is to crank their heads up and kick them into a hollow frame. They are horses, first.

If you want a nice, smooth running walk/flat walk, start with the walk. I’m talking about the regular walk. Encourage her to stretch her head DOWN, relax her topline, no contact. The muscles they develop in the walk are pretty much the same muscles they need to gait in a four beat, smooth gait. After all, the flat walk and running walk are just basically a fast walk.

Once the mare will relax and travel on a loose rein at the walk, ask for just a ‘tiny’ bit more speed. You are wanting her to get into the dreaded “Camel Walk”. It will rock you back and fourth, not something that will be pleasant for someone with a bad back. But, it does help strengthen the core muscles. The Camel Walk on a loose rein with a relaxed and level topline is where they REALLY start to condition the muscles that they use for gaiting.

Once you feel that she is fit enough for what you are asking, ask for a tiny bit more speed. If it’s smooth, leave her alone. If it’s bumpy, bring her back to a walk, regroup, and try again. Think of this horse not as having a transmission with obvious “shifting” (Walk, Trot, Canter) but as a centrifugal clutch. Everything from the walk up to canter is all one gear, just different speeds. And there are lots of different ways that they can move at these different speeds. Flatwalk, Running walk, Fox Trot, Saddle rack, stepping pace (bad, do not encourage), single foot, etc.

Good luck. Just remember, good riding is good riding, gaited horses are just horses. No special bits, no special shoes or trims, no special riding posture. Ride balanced, soft, encourage a rounded topline. She’ll get there. Get her moving correctly and the gaits will just come. Most gaited horses I’ve ever seen that don’t gait, can’t because their rider is in their way or they are in pain.

[anon38350891]

Char’s post is really great.

I have a Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse who is gaited but has upon occasion been prone to pace (very uncomfortable to ride). A trainer I took him to, for one month residential training followed by a 4-hour lesson for me, emphasized the importance of bend.

He was getting very straight and stiff and this made it harder for him to do his natural gait. So she had me slide one hand down the rein, put that side leg on, and ask for a good bend while still going forward, at all gaits walk - running walk - canter.

This was the Holy Grail training tip for me. I still use it whenever he gets a bit irregular in his gait. It seems to instantly balance him and make his return to smooth gaiting pretty automatic.

[dacasodivine]

Does she have a gaited horse saddle or one that she knows doesn’t interfere with his shoulders?

I have a gaited horse. If my saddle doesn’t fit him right, he won’t gait. They need more shoulder clearance to properly gait.

As for slowing him down, that isn’t so easy. A lot that I know are bred to move out and can be a bit hot. While my horse isn’t as fast as some, he can still out walk the average QH. It’s what he is. My thought there is don’t buy a Ferrari and expect it to drive like a Honda.

[JCS]

Can I just tell you guys, this mare is crazy fast. We were riding on a dirt road yesterday, and started speeding up a bit, so we decided to let them go a little. My friend’s mare, gaiting, left my horse in her dust at a trot, so I let him canter to catch up. Well, he had to canter faster–and faster–and finally we came alongside in a hand gallop. I swear the mare looked over at him, dropped into another gear, and took off ahead of us again, still gaiting. She never broke to a canter. I think regarding the speed thing, we’re going to have to learn to love it, rather than trying to slow her down!

[ReSomething]

I don’t have a lot of experience, I have the two ASB and some here and there experience with KMSHA, TWH and the like. The Zeigler books are the Bible and you’ve been given good advice there.

I also find that the gait in my animals comes with more speed than say, a regular QH walk. I rode a TWH on a trail ride with a group of trotting horses and TWH never did his “gait”, that requires that he stretch out and begin the overstride in the back and nod the head and there is a certain amount of impulsion that goes with that.
The pony racks, and as he starts you can feel the swing in the hindquarters that lifts up and speeds up, my trainer calls him naturally double gaited, and the hard thing is to get him to trot.
I’ve been told that the cue for the rack is a wider hand position and a slight rocking in the saddle, to differentiate between speed up diagonal trot and speed up more singlefooting rack.

It absolutely will help to ride a horse that has been trained with a trainer to help, and understand the feel of the footfall pattern before trying to ask for it and sit it.

Speed racking is a competitive sport in the South you know. There are meets at sites in KY and TN and other places, for fun of course. Look up Racking on the Edge.