I believe Gamblethorpe Hanoverians bred him:
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I have never ridden with Dot and literally disagree with her about almost everything. But on this issue I agree and absolutely defer to experienced eye.
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Ummm, as I stated, I looked up and watched a bunch of videos of this horse. I didn’t watch just those two. The horse has varying levels of tension in the walk depending on the show. I also expressed why I’m skeptical of the German Shepherd walk which you are ignoring. Note I asked Dot about it and mentioned my vet’s comments.
That’s some members of COTH for you.
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As I understand it (because I am not a judge), judges dont want to use “lateral” unless it is really, really lateral throughout all the walks - because as discussed already, tension sometimes causes an “unclear rhythm”. Saying a horse is “lateral” is a really big deal, big negative deal.
I was in Omaha last week. I saw tension affect the collected walk in Alice Tarjan’s lovely horse. I am pretty sure that, to get to Omaha as part of the US team, that was the pure result of tension at that moment, not an overall tendency. (I heard it was the first time the horse (rather young), had shown in an indoor colleseum types arena… complete with the lights and jumbotron from the basketball normally played there…)
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I don’t think they actually breed, just source and import nice young German bred youngstock. We have a super 6 year old who came through them as a 3yo colt. I have also been to the yard where they run on any that are not sold as foals, amazing set up!
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Oh, my mistake, good to know! Thanks for correcting me!
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Thank you for saying this. This is the sense i was getting from this thread. The / / leg pattern is a very bad rhythm disruption, much less common than the unequal 12__34 rhythm that can show up with tension in the back in the walk in any horse. It is something you have to be more careful about in horses predisposed to breaking rhythm. Sascha and Amberley have explained the biomechanics of why some wbs with big gaits are predisposed to the unequal rhythm i and others were calling lateral upthread. I accept that my usage is dated.
So if we can not call it lateral or lateral tendency, please anyone, what is the correct term for a walk with a rhythm of 12__34 WITH a V? Unclear rhythm, broken rhythm, out of sync have all been used in this thread. To me, the rhythm is clear and regular, just without equally spaced footfalls. Lorilu, is 12__34 the common meaning of “unclear rhythm” when used by your judge friends?
I would like to be able to describe this correctly and succinctly in the future. I do not have any emotional investment in what the term is, other than wanting to know it is used consistently.
You may observe i tend to verbosity. I am asking for help 
!
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I think YOU and I and anyone can describe it as lateral or lateral tending. It’s fine. The point is that unless a judge sees / / (which is pacing aka a lateral walk) …THEY won’t call it lateral. THEY might say “tension affects quality” or similar phrasing when the walk rhythm is squirrelly.
Hell, call it squirrelly. 
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because neither video shows a lateral walk. Tense maybe.
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Squirrelly to me would be more wandering lol.
Steps not always equal would imply portions of the stride aren’t uniform, but that verbosity might annoy the scribes…I guess steps not uniform might be better, but I’ll stick with tension affects quality. That phrase at least implies improvement is possible to me anyway.
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I have written “unclear rhythm” a few times…To your comment, it may be “clear” and “regular”, but it is not CORRECTLY “clear” or “regular”…
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Inconsistent or maybe irregular rhythm?
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I think most judges I’ve scribed for have said “some tension” or something along those lines in that situation, and / or had me underline “regularity and quality of walk” in the directives.
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I appreciate the responses you guys are giving, but that’s answering “how would a judge describe this walk on a score sheet”. Good answers, they all make sense, and I have written similar. That is not actually the info I am looking for though, so I will be more explicit about where this question is coming from.
A few months back, I rode a horse in a clinic who fell into the 12_34 rhythm very easily, but to varying degrees of severity. It was a work in progress, but in pretty good shape before the clinic, so it’s not something I brought up as something I overtly wanted to address.
The clinician was a judge and at one point I asked her “how badly lateral” his walk was in one portion of the clinic just to check in on it, and she said “not at all”. What I intended to ask was how severe was the incorrect rhythm 12_34 had become at any point, to her eye, but from this thread I’ve learned that what she thought I was asking was whether he was pacing or moving with parallel legs / /, which he definitely was not. So now I don’t know whether he was in the correct rhythm or not in that clinic because I unintentionally asked a different question from what I meant to ask, which is a shame.
So, what I would like to know is how can I concisely and explicitly ask someone else the question about the rhythm that I intended to ask to that judge, in a similar setting in the future - either with a judge or other clinician, but importantly someone who may not know me/the horse well enough to understand my colloquial use of “lateral” meaning the 12_34 rhythm and not parallel legs or pacing.
(So, @Djones, even if I continue to say lateral to myself, I am prompted to continue asking this question out of the need to communicate with other people!)
Sorry for the back and forth on this everyone, I really thought this was a simple question.
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I have gotten “lateral” remarks on tests before with one of my geldings. It’s funny because he is the first horse I’ve ever gotten consistent 8s and 9s on – all at the walk and free walk when I’m riding well. But if I get nervous and tense, it’s all over and it comes out through the regularity of his foot falls at the walk.
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If the horse’s head bobs straight up and down like an oil pump, laterality stride after stride is not an issue. If you the rider can count 1 2 3 4 w/o hesitation on the long sides, again…it’s not a lateral tendency issue.
If it gets funky in transitions, in corners, in turns down cl or quarterline, then you’ve got a block/tension/against the hand in the body somewhere. Your task is to puzzle it out.
Maybe it’s “what do you see in his walks?”
I love the convo, hell I offered up Mr Lateral, it’s all good with me 
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Technically, the rhythm is 1234. Or any version of 1234. 12…34, 1…2…3.4 etc. The problem lies in the timing of the placement of the feet. The sequence of placement is fine.
I suppose asking your question in terms of ‘is he breaking over quickly enough in front’ or too quickly?, or ‘is he spacing his footfalls equally’ might get your question answered, but the answer might be in terms of some work for you. As in tell me when left hind leaves the ground. Then right hind. Now add in front feet. Are they the same timing? It’s usually much easier to see than develop a feel for.
It’s a skill that will pay off in the future for walk pirouettes and transitions for canter. Learning how to feel legs is a great tool that not everyone has. Sometimes it’s luck lol. It encompasses timing of the aids - knowing when to aid to influence a particular leg.
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Not sure whether it helps, but if you sit on the horse and everything is flowing and feeling smooth, usually you will get praised for the walk.
If there is no flow chances are high that the horse is not moving free through his body….
I usually don’t count and I admit I always give more rein to the horse in the walk then I am supposed to…
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Agreeing with you that counting seems redundant
My horse has a big swinging walk when she is moving with a modicum of energy and my hips and lower body follow her side to side motion while my torso stays stable. Once you get following that swing with your lower body tour leg automatically comes on at the right time to do a leg yield or shoulder in. It’s just exaggerating your own swing into an aid. So your own body does this as part of the horse, no need to count or guess what leg is lifted. If your horse is really tense or your own hips don’t follow but do the back/front pump, it might be harder
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Thank you! The unequal timing is what i am trying to specifically indicate by 12_34, meaning the time between the 2nd and 3rd beat (forelimb to diag hind limb) is longer than the time between the beats for the limbs on the same side. I used “rhythm” for this as i understood previously that “rhythm” included equal time between footfalls, like sascha posted from the fei guidelines, but i think you are saying that i was mistaken in how i interpreted this as well.
Asking about breaking over quickly enough is interesting. I have thought about that for other reasons (e.g. forging), but it makes sense it could be relevant here.
How do you use the terms “regularity” and “purity” with respect to the timing of footfalls? You are saying it is only distinct 4 beats with any timing? Does it matter at all if the footfalls are not equally spaced in time? It is an indicator of tension, but i believe the quality of the gait can be impacted by tension in other ways, e.g. not tracking up. The timing of the footfalls can specifically point at the influence of the rider’s hand, i think?
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