[QUOTE=Sunsets;8913871]
Forgive my naive question, but what are the “true” gaits a TWH is supposed to possess?
The Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders and Exhibitors Association, founded in about 1936, has NEVER had a formal breed standard. It has had gait standards, show standards, judging standards, and some others but never a breed standard. This was because the Association was designed to bring under “one roof” a variety of styles of gaited horses that were all related but not all the same.
The reasons for this are long and complex and have to do with culture, economics, politics, and demographics. If you want to know about the times that produced the Walker read Samuel Elliot Morrison’s Oxford History of the American People, the sections that cover the period from about 1830 to about 1935. Then read The Echo of Hoofbeats by Dr. Bob Womak. If you want to put some “frosting” on this pretty substantial cake read A Biography of the Tennessee Walking Horse by Ben Green.
Walk, running walk, trot, rack, canter? I’m honestly curious. A few months ago I got to go on a trail ride with my cousin, who loaned me a TWH that boarded at her barn. I’m pretty sure that guy had a running walk, as mentioned above, it felt like I was getting a back rub as we cruised along. Wonderful! We started moving faster, and he “shifted gears” and I honestly couldn’t tell if we were trotting, pacing, or gaiting. According to my cousin, if I bounced at all, it wasn’t a true gait :lol:.[/QUOTE]
Here is the TWHBEA description of gaits:
http://www.twhbea.com/gaits.htm
It is defective from the get-go because it says the horse has three gaits: flat walk, running walk, and canter. The deep thinkers from Lewisburg forgot the most important gait of all: the walk (sometimes called the “dog walk,” “plain walk,” etc.). Sadly, the examples they use are Big Lick (demonstrating the mindset of the TWHBEA senior management).
Oh, and they also forgot the gallop. 
A better description is here:
http://www.gaitedhorses.net/Articles/RWbyLiz/RWGait.shtml
As with any description one can “pick some nits” but overall it’s really quite good and reasonably easy to understand.
The true running walk is neither lateral nor diagonal; it is centered. That means foot pickup and fall are “isochronal” (evenly timed). This is a very easy gait to ride because it’s nothing more than a normal walk sped up and there is always multiple leg support. The difference between the “flat foot walk” and the “running walk” is speed. The “cadence” (steps per minute) is faster and the stride slightly longer. But the form, and the isochronal timing, is the same.
The running walk is NOT a speed gait. It’s a distance gait. Because it’s just a walk with more steps per minute it’s easy on the horse. A standard walk is about 4 mph. The flat walk will be 6-8 mph. The running walk maybe up to 10 mph. Beyond that the horse will begin to lose form and will either move to the pace or the trot, depending on conformation and breeding. The canter will run as most horses will. Same for the gallop.
The running walk is NOT a “flashy” gait. It’s an example of high quality, efficient movement. Once you start to emphasize “front end action” to try and mimic an ASB (which is what the Big Lick at its core is) then you introduce gross inefficiency of motion and needless expenditure of energy. This is a non-issue for a human in the saddle but is a truly big deal for the horse under the saddle.
If you want to see an example of these gaits properly done Google “Strolling Jim.” He was the first TWH World Grand Champion and does the gaits correctly.
Someone put up a u-tube of gaits over the years. I looked at it and it’s reasonably accurate.
The Walker (and our breed, the Marchador) is a “road horse.” It was designed to get comfortably from Point A to Point B. In the Americas during the Age of Horsepower that often meant travel on roads that were little more than frontier tracks. The ability to jump a log or a washout or move laterally from a snake or feral dog or subsist on poor quality forage was highly prized in a soft gaited horse. Can they do other things, like work cows or pull carts or or plow fields? Indeed they can! There are better options for some of these tasks but if you can only afford one or two horses you need versatility vice specialization.
The Big Lick is, in many ways, the evil, mirror image of what a Walker ought to be. For that reason alone those who created it and defend it ought to be held in the highest contempt by any genuine horseman, no matter what breed they might favor.
G.
However most people I know who ride pacing horses find it to be smooth, I don’t. I can post on a pacing horse.