We're glad you found us and found this video helpful! :)

We're glad you found it helpful :)

Awesome! So glad to hear it's helpful! :)

It would be good to film our own horses to know for sure what they are doing. The slow motion clips were especially helpfull. I'm all for aquire ing an easy to ride gait. That's acually what these awsome gaited horses were bred for! and why this senior rider can still enjoy rideing.

@@wbasmith3627 if you upload a video of your horse on to KZfaq and use Google Chrome as your KZfaq browser, you can change the speed of the video to slow it down. We're also happy to take a look and let you know too! :)

I'm so glad you found it helpful! Thank you for letting us know :) We wish you many happy and smooth trails in 2020!

I'm glad you enjoyed it Pamela. Many people who no longer own horses still find joy in staying connected in other ways :)

I'm so glad to hear that you found it helpful! That's what it's all about :) I wish you many happy and smooth trails!

Thank you! Brenda strongly believed in principles of dressage in training all horses. She incorporated this into her gait training as well as all aspects of riding. I'm glad you enjoyed :)

What evil devices are you indicating? Rubber bands and shackles? Or bell boots and ankle bracelets? I have trained my half arab mare in the latter two and see no evil at all in rubber bells boots, my leather ankle bracelets or 2 ounce chains. Your cowboy boots weigh more. I never had luck coordinating my efforts with the first two devices, some may have but I never did. I realize many who were involved initially with the RMH disliked any but the daisy cutters, however to quote my grandfather who taught Agriculture at my high school, "Increases in size, quality, refinement and performance are the signs of a quality breeding program." In other words, breeding quality to quality, the breed will evolve. If you fail to do so, things go backward.

I'm gad you found it helpful! :)

Imagine one "cycle" or one measure(in musical terms) of a horse's movement being all 4 feet leaving and being put down to the ground once. If horse moves two feet in sync it's two beat. Because two feet leave ground and land at the same time, and then two others. So you get two distinct beats. Four beat is when none of the feet are synchronized. Four feet leave the ground and land at different times. So you get four distinct beats.

We're so glad you found it helpful! Brenda had such a way of explaining things to make them seem so simple! I still review all her videos periodically. ~Jamie PS--I love the shoe in your profile picture :)

I'm glad you found it helpful! Brenda had such a way of explaining things that made it so simple to understand. Feel free to check out our free natural gait training library on our website phoenixrisingsaddles.com/gaited-horse-training/gaited-horse-training-library. There are all the videos you see here plus a ton of articles written by Brenda Imus :)

You're all correct! :) Amble is another term to describe the step-pace. It's when the two lateral sets of legs move almost in synchrony, but with the back foot stepping down an instant before the same-side front foot. This reduces the amount of concussion felt by the rider, but the horse ends up absorbing it. Also, when performing a step-pace, a horse must be moving in at least a slightly ventro-flexed frame. This can lead to soundness issues down the road with the back, stifle, hocks. The goal with a horse that tends to step-pace is to 'square up' to an evenly timed 4-Beat pace. In your standi's case that would likely be either a rack or running-walk--depending on length of overstride from behind. I hope this helps! Jamie

Phoenix Rising Saddles--Your Gaited Horse Source (4-Beat Saddles) ok. He loves to pace but I hate it. Is there a way to get a smoother gait that doesn’t hurt his body? I would like to find a trainer that works with gaited horses so I can teach him in a way that keeps him healthy. Thank you for replying back!

It's much easier to help square up a pace than it at first seems. Getting them comfortable under saddle and in the mouth is half the battle. Once you are sure your horse can move freely it's all about working that walk! We advocate doing gait work yourself because you will need to continue riding in such a way to maintain your horse's muscle and neurological memory to keep your horse moving in good form. Conditioning your horse to move with impulsion from behind takes some time but, as with anything, the more your horse is used to moving this way, the less work it takes for the both of you. Take heart, you got this! :) Here are some links to articles and videos we have about helping to round out the pace that you should find helpful. phoenixrisingsaddles.com/gaited-horse-training/197-cavaletti-training-gaited-horse , phoenixrisingsaddles.com/gaited-horse-training/89-retraining-horse-that-paces , phoenixrisingsaddles.com/gaited-horse-training/102-developing-impulsion-part-i (the link to part 2 of this article is at the end of the article), phoenixrisingsaddles.com/gaited-horse-training/107-you-can-collect-that-gaited-horse, phoenixrisingsaddles.com/gaited-horse-training/109-ten-tips-for-finding-and-keeping-the-gait , phoenixrisingsaddles.com/gaited-horse-training/108-is-your-horse-s-manner-of-gaiting-destroying-his-body

The jog has the same footfall pattern of the trot, being completely diagonal, just performed more slowly and usually with less extension in the front legs and movement in the hocks. The walk is the "mother of all gaits" so basically the walk, running-walk, and rack all have the same footfall patterns. The running walk and rack are performed faster and with the running-walk, there is a longer stride in the back legs and sometimes (depending on the horse) more reach and/or lift in the front. I hope this helps :)

After rewatching this video I agree that it is most important to allow your horse to do what comes naturally. I would never be concerned with 3 or 4 beats. Your pony has its own way of moving...yes it does sound like your mare is gaited. She sounds like a fun horse to ride. I would watch for signs of arthritis and pain/damage that come with age. At some point every good pony needs to be retired.

@@saturnslipper thank you for taking the time!!!

Hi Linda :) While every breed of gaited horse claims a unique set of gaits, the gaits on the gait spectrum are the only true gaits a horse will perform. However, various breeds do have a slightly different appearance when gaiting due to variants in conformation and training, and breed associations have developed different names for these gaits. In a nutshell, the classic paso fino gait is a very short-strided rack or stepping pace; the paso corto is a rack or stepping pace with average length of stride; the paso largo is the running walk; the trocha is the foxtrot. Same with the Tolt for Icelandics, which is either a rack or stepping pace. I hope this helps! ~Jamie

Phoenix thanks for the answer that was very helpful.

The footfall pattern of the tolt is the same as the walk, rack, and running-walk. Each foot moves independently of the other and is performed at very high speeds. The difference between the four is the timing and also differences in the lift and reach between the different gaits. With the step-pace, it's almost as if the left side and right side are each working congruently except instead of the same-side front and back foot landing together, the back foot lands a split second before the front, reducing the concussion for the rider but placing a lot of strain on the back, stifle and hocks.

I Personally love stepping pace because it's smooth and comfortable and fast and flashy in a show ring when the regular horses do normal jogs u can't be overlooked, when it's a very flashy movement. When I had my saddlebred ceasar the judge absolutely loved him and his unique movement, I'd say to just give them joint supplement as they age , stepping pace is good on trails too. And most gaited horses prefer to do it, over more complex movements. Many naturally automatically do stepping pace in place of jog/trot.

Thank you so much for answering my Question. Horses are such majestic animals.

Naturally gaited horses are both built to gait and also wired neurologically to do so. Rebecca is right about the trot--although riding a pace is no fun either! LOL. How the horse is built will decide what gaits they will naturally perform. They also have to move so that each leg is moving independently from the other (quadridexterous) so this requires neurological wiring (naturally and through practice as well) to help them coordinate. Horses that are more lateral (move the front and back leg on the same side together) will pace and if we help them 'square up' they will perform a running-walk or a rack. Some gaited horses are diagonally oriented, so they move the opposite side legs together and tend to trot. Those horses can naturally transition into the smoother foxtrot or rack once they move their legs more independently of one another. I hope this helps add to your bucket of knowledge :) ~ Jamie

Having seen the posting to ride the trot as you described must be very tiring for the rider with having to alternately stand in the stirrups and then sit back down. However I must say it is attractive to watch; it gives the impression of precision and neatness. Thanks again Rebecca for enlightening me.

Thank you very much for the technical information. I never knew that there was so much to know about the gates of horses.

+Paula SundustFarm Yes, great catch! It's very common for horses to maintain a very slightly lateral movement while doing the run-walk. The same thing happens with the horse that's Foxtrotting, except with the diagonals. She's moving very slightly on the diagonal at times too :)

she's saying that it's a myth that the running walk is defined by the head nod (at 9:30 mark). it's the over reach of the hind past the track that the front has just left that defines it from a rack. yet she says that such movement does cause head nod. then she says the length of neck, back, etc, may effect the degree of head nod, from slight to significant. no wonder I'm confused! sounds like we're right back to a head nod defining a horse is doing the running walk! :)

I know it's a lot to wrap your brain around! LOL. I think what she meant is to not look at the nod, or lack thereof, to define the gait. The nod is a result of the understride and the horse using its head to keep their balance. When analyzing gait, definitely look at the legs and the footfall pattern to determine the gait and not just if they're nodding their heads or not :)

She explained it perfectly. If you don't understand, watch the slow motion parts over again. My stud horse had a headset like a knight on a chess board, in every gait except for an all out run/gallop...but, people try to control their horses head, and in doing so, they mess up the horses natural gaits. That is so true...

The nod IS the most important aspect of the flat walk and running walk. In the old days there was a saying 'if he's not nodding, he's not walking!". Trainers create a problem lumping all "gaited" breeds together, because the others are lateral, a good Walking horse should be moving on the diagonal. Very few good Walkers around anymore.

Congratulations on going gaited! I'm glad you found us :) Loping/cantering can be a great way to help a horse who is laterally-oriented break up their muscle and neurological memory to help even out their footfall pattern. Loping up hills can be really beneficial especially, since it helps engage their back-ends, which we want them to do when performing an evenly timed 4-beat gait. There are some caveats here, though, so I'm going to include a couple of links on our website that discuss this very topic that I hope you find helpful :) gaitedhorsesaddles.com/blogs/news/can-i-canter-my-gaited-horse gaitedhorsesaddles.com/blogs/news/cantering-the-gaited-horse-q-a gaitedhorsesaddles.com/blogs/news/how-and-when-to-trot-or-canter-your-gaited-horse Jamie Evan

No not at all. All horses flat walk, and we often ride at the flat walk on the trail. It's good to allow them a chance to let their muscles relax and not ride in a super collected frame all the time. Many gaited horses have really big flat walks and you can feel a lot of movement under the saddle and others not so much. Just depends on your horse. So a flat walk is just fine for your horse :)

Collection can be taught at any gait and it makes the best even better. However, it is a very difficult concept to impart to people and it does require some physical as well as mental effort on the part of the rider, not just sitting like a sack of potatoes.. Many prefer to just let the horse string along as he pleases. In addition, the contact required to aid in collection can cause some horses to square up and get trotty, therefore causing their riders to avoid using such contact. It's a fine line to walk, getting that concept of collection through to your equine student.

Hi Pam, unfortunately sometimes methods are used to force artificial collection and/or headset. Tying down the head is one of these techniques. We advocate for natural training practices. Regarding this method in particular, because a horse uses it's head as a pendulum for balance, we feel it's not a humane practice to impede horses' abilities to move the way they naturally need to. Gaited horses are gaited naturally. We advocate for providing them comfortable tack that allows them complete freedom of movement. This in turn allows them to collect into their natural form, rounded up through the back, neck, and poll, which is key for them to perform an evenly timed 4-Beat gait :)

Hi Shewolfen, the walkaloosa (Purim Moon) featured in the trot portion does slip into a foxtrot in a couple spots. I agree it's not ideal to showcase the trot, but it is helpful to see how a horse can slip back and forth between two and four beat gaits. The true trot is exactly equally timed on diagonal fore and back footfalls. We used to have a few spot appy stud, Moon's sire, that performed a true natural Indian Shuffle, which is different from the foxtrot in that the back foot sets down slightly before the diagonal front foot. She ended up being more diagonally oriented than her sire. The foxtrot that she tends to slip into, her front foot sets down a split second before the opposite back foot. A true Indian Shuffle consists of the horse moving two lateral sets of legs nearly, but not quite, in unison. The hind leg sets down an instant before the fore leg. In other words, it is a form of the stepping pace. What sets it apart from other stepping paces is that the hind leg literally shuffles as it sets down under the horse. This has a fabulous shock absorbing effect for the rider. Unlike many other kinds of horses that do a stepping pace, these horses generally will not 'square up' their gaits--the shuffle is an entirely dominant genetic characteristic. Also unlike other pacey animals, Indian Shuffling horses tend to have an easy, wonderful canter, and a very lateral walk. The footfall pattern of the tolt is the same as the walk, rack, and running-walk. Each foot moves independently of the other and is performed at very high speeds. The difference between the four is the timing and also differences in the lift and reach between the different gaits. I wish we had a video of horse performing this very fun gait for the video, but Brenda was unable to find an Icey for the video shoot :)

Maryah Cook they travel hollowed out sway backed and do not support the weight of the rider. brother are not using these hind end properly so there hocks take Alot of the concussion when being ridden.

It's a very subtle difference but can make a big difference in how it feels for the rider. With the pace, the legs on the same side work congruently. With the step-pace, they work almost exactly together, but the back foot sets down a fraction of a second before the same-side front leg. This reduces the concussion the rider feels because instead of being a two-beat gait, it's now an unevenly timed 4 beat gait with no moment of suspension between each side setting down. This is evident if you watch the rider instead of the horse next time around. She bounces significantly more with the pace than the step-pace (watch it in the real time and not slow motion and it's very evident. Ideally you want all four legs to 'square up' and become evenly timed to get them moving in good form. The result of this is a rack or running-walk, depending on the speed and amount of overstride in the back. I hope this helps!

Also, here is an article that outlines simple tests you can perform to determine if your saddle fits your horse. If their saddle is uncomfortable, it prevents them from rounding up and collecting under saddle, which makes a smooth 4-beat gait pretty much impossible. If your horse stiffens up against the saddle, they usually ventro-flex their back instead of rounding up through their back. This can cause undue stress on the stifles and hocks, leading to long-term soundness issues. Saddle fit is always the first thing you want to rule out when tackling gait training. phoenixrisingsaddles.com/gaited-horse-training/87-does-your-saddle-fit-your-horse