Can your gaited horses trot and canter, or is everything a different speed of gaiting? I had been told that a gaited horse can canter and trot, but i was not sure this can be true. TIA.
They can trot, but you don’t want them to. The purpose of having a gaited horse is the smooth ride. They usually have a lovely canter. My SSH (Spotted Saddle Horse) is very fast at the walk and if riding with trotting horses, I usually have to stop and wait for them, slow him down, or they are trotting the whole time. When they canter, I usually canter as his gait isn’t as fast. But if they’re trotting, his gait is great and I don’t have to post.
Keep in mind there are many breeds of gaited horses and all will vary. I had trotting horses for the first 40 years of riding, and still enjoy them, but I like a fast walking horse that can cover alot of ground without effort.
It depends on how laterally gaited a specific horse is. Some really pacey horses don’t trot and have a terrible canter. My Icelandic has four really clear and nice gaits…walk, tolt, trot, canter.
It depends.
If the horse has a centered gait as it’s “native gait” then it should be able to walk, perform the gait, and canter without difficulty.
The more lateral the horse the more difficulty it will have with the canter.
The more diagonal the horse the less difficulty it will have with the canter.
There are some old timers and ignorant moderns who believe that the canter will “ruin” a soft gait. That is simply false. By the by, there are some in the trotting world who see the “soft” gaits as evidence of lameness or serious conformational flaw. That’s also grossly incorrect.
G.
Depends. My made of awesome Paso has multi gaits: walk, corto, trot, largo and canter) I have cues for each, and if left to his own devises he will pick what works best based on the terrain. Have I mentioned he is made of awesome??
Some gaited breeds do naturally perform a trot, others do not.
If someone proudly announced the Tennessee Walker they had for sale had a lovely trot, I would hang up the phone and keep looking.
I rarely cantered my Walking Horss only because I didn’t need to. I have been on a horse my entire life. Gaited Horses did not come into my life until I was in my 40’s. By then I was well into slowing down and “smelling the roses” and I saw no need to canter when their intermediate gait was fast enough that most walk/trot horses had to lope to keep up.
My 22 yr old TWH, performs a rocking chair canter at liberty that would drop the jaw of any judge. I have never schooled him; it was born into those long legs of his and is breath taking to behold when he feels like showing out in the front pasture:)
The allergy to the trot is short sighted.
I have one who is exceptionally well gaited and he is on the trotty end of the spectrum. He’d never pace, it’s not in his vocabulary. he can RW downhill all day long, funny thing, but he’ll pop into a bold trot to go up steep hills. He also has a lovely canter. he dog walks like a QH, you would never know he’s gaited til you click him up into his running walk.
I have two others on the pacey end of the spectrum, one trots at liberty some, while the other never does unless he’s confused u/s about what’s being asked and really, really rounded up and lifted in the back. Both have really pretty canters.
I like horses with lots of gears. dog walk, medium walk, flat walk, running walk, and canter. I don’t care to develop or foster the trot in the TWH, but I won’t shoot one for it, either.
I have heard that some Racking Horse people do not want their horses to canter. Ever. I don’t know why.
Five-gaited Saddlebreds trot as well as gait, as do four- and five-gaited Icelandics.
TWHs are known for a great canter.
There are many different gaited breeds, and all have different breed standards and ways of going.
thank you all. this has been extrememly helpful.
I’ve got a trotty walker and a ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ racker. They both can deliver a very fine flat walk and running walk. The walker has a road trot and a beautiful collected trot, as well as a trot that will knock your fillings loose. Sometimes he will passage. He has a rocking chair canter and a hand gallop. He cannot pace, amble, or dog walk.
The racking horse can amble, pace, trot, saddle rack, show walk, speed rack, and gallop a lot faster than I want to go. She has a flat canter, but is lazy and prone to doing the ‘wicky-wack’, a mix of rack or maybe trot in front and canter behind. She can dog walk. I know its heresy, but if I could find the button to push to get her to trot under saddle more often I would, because its as soft and easy to sit as a good QH’s jog, but faster. She hasn’t a rough gait in her.
ETA, a friend’s late lamented fox trotter was one of those strongly gaited horses with basically two gears, running walk and fox trot. He and my racking mare would race each other in gait, and he could push her into a gallop from her very fast speed rack every time without breaking out of the fox trot.
Both horses I pretty much allow to perform the gait they want to on trails, my reasoning being that they probably know what’s good for their legs and backs. I have noticed when the racker is out with gaited horses she tends to show off with ‘correct’ gaiting more than if we’re out by ourselves.
