I’ve never thought too much about this until recently, but I’m also pretty sure I’ve heard it to mean two different things. So, in your opinion, what is meant by “trappy” when we speak of a horse’s way of going?
I’ve heard of trappy ground or area, but not a way of going. Are you sure you did not mishear and it was crappy? snappy? happy?
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That is what my first thought was, trappy ground conditions, not trappy way of going?
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I’ve heard trappy used in western pleasure horse context. It is meant to describe a stilted way of moving, almost as if stabbing at the ground. It doesn’t look fluid, it looks staccato.
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I have always heard the term used to mean a horse with short, choppy, strides, accompanied with more knee and hock action than ideal.
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We always learn something new, don’t we.
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ditto, this is exactly my understanding.
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A lot of up and down motion with very little forward movement…thing sewing machine
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Like english pleasure or park horses
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Yep, ‘trappy’ has always meant lots of up and down to me, like a park horse. I always wondered if it came from/was tied to carriage horses, since a ‘trap’ is a kind of carriage that would be pulled by a park-type horse.
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In the American Saddlebred world, there are bloodlines that produce trappy going horses who are more suited to three gaited divisions. The are up and down and hocky. The horses who are suitable for gaited divisions are much more open in their shoulders. So, it is a term Ihave heard forever.
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We have always called a horse who uses his knees lifting and folding in each stride, a trappy mover. He may or may not be hard gaited as he goes along. This trappy movement actually was a desirable way of going before improved roads came along. With terrible roads, rutted, unimproved surfacing, the horse who lifted his feet up and then placed them solidly, was less likely to trip or stumble moving along with any speed. Saddlebreds, Fresians, the old breeding of Gelderladers (pre-1990s) used as European stagecoach horses, are a good examples of horses who use their knees up naturally, trappy movers, as are many Morgan lines.
Daisy cutter movers were undesirable back then, because they did trip and stumble on rough ground with hooves having very little ground clearance each stride. It was only after good roads using hard surfacing in the UK, some stone paving in Europe were developed, that daisy cutter movement became more desireable. Americans had mostly terrible roads except in towns and cities. With local County control, there was not much uniformity in building or maintaining roads. Good modern roads for cars did not become commonly possible until Eisenhower (1950s) made the new Highway System a priority to the Gov’t.
We had a very nice, tall crossbred, Sporthorse gelding who moved with the lifted knees, distinct folding of his legs, a trappy mover. He actually was a very comfortable ride while trotting fast or slow, cantering, and covered a huge amount of ground each stride. He was a very fast horse, speediest of our group with this kind of trappy movement. Long sloping shoulder, not upright, with proportionate sloped pasterns. Neither the very upright or really long and sloping pasterns that tend to break down over time.
In the TB racing film at the Kentucky Horse Park, their racing movement is described as being like a wheel. Leg lifts and folds, then reaches out to move horse forward. Part of the TBs speed is from lifting knee up so leg can fold quicker, reach out again.
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goodhors, love your description! In old, mostly British books, I’ve read it always has a positive connotation, so hearing it as an apparent negative ‘stabby or twisting’ movement is a surprise to me. Interesting how it has morphed over time, location, and purpose.
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Interesting!
However, there was a “Good Roads” movement in the US in the 1890s:
http://blog.midwestind.com/america-good-roads-movement/
This is just the first source I found; I’m sure there are other/better ones.
Thanks for that information link. I am using historical references from books to say American roads were often of poor quality. My great Grandfather talked about pulling cars out of the mud with his Pair of horses, over the tall, steep hill of what is now US 131 near the Michigan southern border. This would be 1930s-40s. He could count on making cash money doing that in late fall, winter, spring. He always had the Pair harnessed in the barn, even if he was not planning to use them that day. Ready to pull cars out. Being ready, he could often pull several cars out before the neighbor guy came with his Pair! He also put in work time as part of paying his county taxes, using his Pair for improving that road by smoothing, adding gravel fill, yearly. The cash from stuck cars was a big help to their income.
My mother told of trips from Chicago to western Michigan, M 60, to stay with her Grandparents. The trip took most of a day, in GOOD weather, with dry roads, to get there. I now can travel their route in about an hour and a half. As a kid it took us about 4-5 hours to travel that route, which my Mom said was so speedy!
Most folks planned visiting during summers when roads were usually in firm condition, easy driving or took the train. Trains ran everywhere, no fighting mud, ran on time. They moved a lot of people, freight, which got things delivered by rail instead of by roads. You just had to drive the horse/car from the train station, back to your house on whatever kind of road you had. Bicycle riders also were more good weather riders, when roads were more easily navigated. At least they were up here in the snowy, cold northern states. Those bikes in any style, were HEAVY to wrestle thru ruts and mud of bad roads.
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not quite since that is a cultivated trait in pasos so they are smooth and they cover more ground than you think in normal use…trappy is what some old timers described as ‘he can trot all day in a bushel basket’
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My PRE was the perfect example of trappy today. I should’ve taken a video for you all :lol:
He was just quite tense, energetic, and somewhat leery of new jumps in the ring. His conformation and type really lets him coil up and move faster up and down than forward! I was riding with a fellow boarder and she said, it’s like he thinks he’s running, but not going anywhere! A little bit of work later and he relaxed over his back and moved like a proper dressage creature, but man, if he gets himself worked up! This isn’t so typical of him, but we’ve had wacky weather which has made many of them a little less sane.
When I bought my Hackney pony, my trainer described him as trappy. It was a compliment. He had the typical Hackney action, could trot forever, and moved beautifully. As he aged, he had less and less knee action. Heck, he was already 22 when I got him, and still got those knees way up. Dang, I miss that little guy. I had to put him down due to a sinus tumor when he was 29.
Rebecca
