Tennessee Walking Horse Question

[rhymes_with_orange]

@Equus2000

canter - walk - jog - trot - walk. no gaiting.

Not all gaited horses gait though. My friend bought a royally bred TWH as a weanling. Once under saddle he couldn’t gait to save his life and prefers to trot at liberty too. Thankfully for her she just wanted him for a trail horse.

[Hawkridge]

Op, he looks like a Saddlebred to me.

[Frosty_M]

He looks a little sore but he definitely has walking horse in him. The way he nods his head to the beat of his feet is something that breed loves to do. Covering ground as fast as he does without you having to post is another indication.
Treasure your lovely horse but maybe check out why he is sore. Thanks for sharing.

[Horsecare101]

@Frosty M

He looks a little sore but he definitely has walking horse in him. The way he nods his head to the beat of his feet is something that breed loves to do. Covering ground as fast as he does without you having to post is another indication.
Treasure your lovely horse but maybe check out why he is sore. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you! I love learning more about this boy. He is my heart horse through and through. We just had the vet out for a lameness exam last week and he’s got a bit of arthritis in his left front. They said it’s mild so we just started him on Previcox. I also think he was a little foot sore on his hinds. We have a new horse in the pasture so we pulled hind shoes just in case, but I noticed he was sensitive yesterday so we’re putting them back on. He’s 25 so he always seems to have a slight hitch in his giddy up, but vet said he looked great overall ☺️

[walkinthewalk]

1. Agree that massive-makes-you-smile-head bob belongs to a TWH:)

2. While I believe in Previcox and use it when I need to, I am not a fan of long term use. In spite of what “they” say, it will give a horses ulcers if used long enough:). It took my foundered horse several months before ulcers showed up, but show up they did. Now I have to be careful if he has to have Previcox, to not keep him on it any longer than absolutely necessary.

My foundered horse who is insulin resistant, also happens to have a fractured sacrum from a 2006 accident. The arthritis build up is bad. He also managed to dislocate a vertebra in the last big hail storm we had. Neither horse would stand still long enough for me to risk my own hail damage to put them in the barn.

2.1. I have tried a few oral meds to help him with his discomfort. What has worked the best (and he is currently on) is Cosequin ASU+ (Plus).

https://www.cosequin.com/product/cosequin-asu-plus/

This is the link to Nutramax’ Cosequin page so you can read and link to the studies that have been done. The best prices I have found are Valley Vet and Chewy.com.

3. Also, if you can afford to buy a 6" x 9" red light therapy pad, I am a firm believer in those, as well. Mine is about 12 years old, has been used on several horses and on myself when I ended up with cellulitis in one leg last year. The doctor couldn’t believe how fast my leg went down/healed after I left the hospital.

These pads aren’t all created equal for the money they cost. The “According To Gospel” pads are value received; mine has more than paid for itself in 12 years:)

Plus they are made in Nashville, TN and my motto is “Buy American” whenever I can:)

https://equinelighttherapy.com

3.1. Back On Track also has therapy leg boots that can be left on for long periods but not 24/7. They may be something to consider for when the weather gets cold:)

[Guilherme]

@Scribbler

The things here that say not QH to me are:

1. Relatively high set tail, and level croup. QH tend to lower set tails and rounded sloping croups.
2. The slight sag to his back. I’ve recently met a saddlebred that has congenital lordosis at a fairly young age, and while he’s nothing like that, the sag makes me think of a horse that stiffens and drops his back to gait.
3. His neck is held high, and looks like it could fold into a “swan neck” which is not very QH in nature
4. His head doesn’t look very QH

Now I am saying all this having seen enough QH and stock horses generally in my life, but very very few gaited horses of any kind. So I am confident in saying “not QH” and from what I’ve seen online, the TWH has perhaps more variation in type than the Saddlebred.

The video, above, is completely inconclusive. It’s a horse ridden by woman. The horse isn’t trotting and that’s all you can say about the gait. Beyond that it’s all speculation.

The TWHBEA does NOT have a breed standard. There are judging standards and those have contributed to the breed’s overall conformation (as in most breeds it’s the show ring winners that get bred by the professionals and they produce the largest number of foals). But without a breed standard a Walker can look like anything from a bulldog QH to a very oriental looking horse. Looks are absolutely useless in making a “breed assessment.”

Complicating this is that for decades there was no verification of parentage and “papers fraud” was rampant. When we bred Walkers I was approached at least once a year by people making cold calls wanting to buy old papers on deceased horses. That pretty much stopped when blood typing was introduced and completely ended when DNA testing came onto the scene.

So, if you want to have A look (and not necessarily a completely accurate one) then you can pull DNA and send to UCDavis for evaluation. But, even here, you’ve got a problem because the Walker is the result of crossbreeding a number of strains. I’ve not looked at the science lately, but a lot of people want to identify the “gait gene” if such exists. If it does and it can be identified then you might have a clue as to origin.

If you like the horse, it’s got a comfortable “fourth gear,” and it’s doing for you then enjoy what’s under you and don’t worry overly about where it came from.

G.