It is not lateral. It just isnt. My comment for the movement would be ‘tension affects quality’. There is a clear V.
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which is true, but doesn’t help the rider one bit to know wtf is being wrecked by the tension. The walk in that first video is clearly tending towards lateral. Or in my original words “lateral af” which obviously should not appear on a test 
because that little degree of lateralness can be as difficult to remedy as a full on almost pacing gait where the walk should be.
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WOW! Just WOW! Enjoytheride, that is pretty awful to say. Dot has a great eye!
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I am not Dot but maybe I can help. In a lateral walk the clear four beat is lost and there will not be a moment where the same-side hind “displaces” the same-side front just as the front lifts off the ground. Instead of a V there will be a \ \ where both legs seem to move laterally forward and back at the same time.
Chancellor, I think Enjoytheride was being tongue in cheek and was slyly referencing that both Dot and Carl know what they’re talking about. 
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Carl Hester likely has seen the horse in the flesh, actually moving, rather than judging from two brief clips. That might be why he suggested a ‘10’ when others are having a lively debate here.
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I totally understood it to be sarcastic. Hope i am not wrong lol.
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But it isnt lateral. Nor is it lateral as heck (my correction to your comment). My job isnt to teach the rider what they are doing wrong in training. Im not giving a riding lesson. Im commenting on what is in front of me.
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If the walk is lateral, the two legs on the same side are moving in parallel - so they stay equally far apart at all times. The lines never intersect (make a V). If it has a lateral tendency, but isn’t truly lateral, it almost looks like a wave to me - the legs are still moving more in parallel than separately, just with a very slight delay in time. A horse with a pure walk will bring the hind leg forward to make the V, and then “kick” the front leg out of the way.
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Thank you, that makes sense and also explains why Dot and others are looking for “2 beat”.
However, the rhythm can be broken (12__34) without that particular visual, and i thought the broken rhythm was the real issue from a training perspective? If i am on a horse who is not predisposed to lateral tendencies and i get any break in equal 4-beat rhythm, i use it as a sign of tension and feedback for the work i am doing with the horse. I interpreted dot’s earlier comments to mean the 12__34 rhythm should be called a lateral tendency, and only a 2-beat lateral walk should be called lateral, but her most recent response to sascha makes me think the rhythm does not really matter?
I think some horses can have an obviously broken rhythm without ever giving the / / impression (e.g. first video). Dot also gave multiple animal examples (elephant, giraffe, camel) and they all have the 12__34 rhythm to varying degrees, but not always/usually with the / / vs. V action, and are all 4 beat. So if they are not really meeting the / / bar for lateral, they are not good examples for that. They are great examples for 12__34 rhythm though. And the / / “impression” is also not equivalent to 2 beat, i think, either. I think it is a pretty high bar to look for / / and will miss a lot of rhythm irregularities that are important.
If lateral or lateral tendency are not the right terms for 12__34 rhythm irregularities, i would like to know the right term going forward. I would like to be able to be able to describe the 12__34 rhythm concisely, whether or not there is also / /.
I was using lateral and lateral tendency for this, since they are the terms i learned them from judges for 12__34 rhythm 20 years ago.
A horse can have a 10 walk but not always walk a 10. This stallion is young and in a moment of tension and a lack of forwardness, the walk suffered. I don’t know any horses or riders that have executed a perfect walk every single time.
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Hmm, I guess I best get some more caffeine.
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I have a TWH that I showed in gaited dressage. When he is tense anywhere, he tends toward a lateral walk. When he is not tense, he walks like a jungle cat. I had many an L grad (schooling show judge) note that he was ‘pacey’ or ‘tense’ and that’s all they need to tell me on their test notes. If I don’t know what that means that’s MY problem, not the judge’s problem.
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I would certainly cut this horse some slack. He has a lovely natural walk as evidenced in the second video. I would love to know what he scored for walk at his stallion inspection (although as I mentioned earlier, excitement and/or anxiety can affect the quality of the walk even when the horse is in hand).
Also, the horse is just now turning 6 so I am not surprised to see that being asked to walk into a connection affects the quality of the gait. Hopefully the rider and her trainer (I believe her regular trainer is Gareth Hughes) understand that the horse is not yet ready for much contact at the walk and they do not drill it during training sessions. It will be interesting to see how the walk develops as the horse acquires more strength. The rider may learn how to finesse him into keeping his natural, pure gait even as he accepts contact with the bit, or he may be one of those horses whose walk is so big and ooey-gooey that any attempt to collect it risks affecting the purity of the gait to some degree.
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Ummm, there was a smiley face.
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Like I said, I need more caffeine.
I don’t know that we collectively gain anything fretting or arguing over how one judge documents the “lateral tending walk” as “tension effects quality.” Either you get it that the horse is tense and the walk is negatively impacted or you don’t.
In the world outside of marks on a test…we say and hear things like he’s getting pacey or he’s getting tense or tight in his walk, his walk is getting lateral, etc.
If the 1 2 3 4 rhythm of a pure, cat-like walk gets disturbed, we talk about it and use lots of words, including camel 
I would hope a judge wouldn’t remark “tension made him a camel.”
Am I wrong? What am I missing?
There is a huge difference between a lateral walk (which this is not) and a walk that is somewhat/slightly out of sequence.
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The comment goes in the box for the movement…? Which, the video is not of a test, but I would call it the medium walk.
Might thoughts too!
Something just looks “off” to me but I can’t put my finger on what exactly it is. Maybe it’s because when the hind leg swings through, it starts off wide (outside), swings way inward, and then swings back out before it contacts the ground? And that’s what makes it so “swoopy”? Makes me think of a model trying to purposefully sha-shay their booty walking down the runway…
There’s an unevenness to the front end on the first video. It just looks labored. It does not look effortless and flowing. Looks forced and unnatural.
But I’m not a dressage rider so what do I know?
This horse is not lame at all in anyway.
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