Interesting discovery...

[JOJOBA]

Yesterday I decided to have a bit of fun, and try something new. So I tried out a very rudimentary attempt at some western riding with my horse.
I lengthened off my reins and tried some neck reining with him (my knowledge of western riding is minimal), and altered my seat a little to a more western position.
Interesting part -
as soon as I did this he went long, and low and started working really relaxed. He responded really well to the neck reining, until we were doing 10m circles mostly just off my legs (please bear in mine this is a fat lazy cob who has only ever done english riding). And THEN, he started to do what I can only think is a jog?
Im going to video it for you all on saturday. He has always been able to do this, but once he had a longer rein and my weight differently sat, he just almost automatically did it with much less encouragment. Sometimes it was a four beat trot with his head bobbing (no idea what that was) but mostly he was kind of... trotting very slowly and very levelly, hardly picking his feet up and his back was moving side to side rather than up and down, and Im fairly sure there was no moment of suspension (hard to imagine what it looks like for horseback).
It was very odd, but I carried on making him do it, being of the opinion that it was probably giving him a workout and also because he is usually SO bouncy it was a nice change.
What do you think? Western horse at heart? :D

xxx

[Jessey]

Sounds like you have got a natural there :D did you try the same thing at a canter? Can't wait to see the video.

J

[kianjoseph]

How did you know what to do? I'd love to try that with my horse?

Also can you use western saddles for english riding? what do they do different?

[cvb]

Jojoba

Apparently some Appaloosas have a "running walk" as an extra gait. I haven't been able to find much about it, but I guess its a variation on tolt ?

Maybe thats what he was doing ;)

You know I ride both english and western - I find the dressage work helps my jog and vice versa :D

And given all the fun you've had getting something like an outline, isn't this a bit of a breakthrough ?

You need to encourage him to keep a little "bounce" in the back leg, and not drag his feet - but other than that, this could really help with muscle development etc :)

[Harlequin]

The extra appy gait is known as the "indian shuffle" and is like a running gait which is very comfy and covers a lot of ground. Not as fast,bouncy or high stepping as the tolt.Theres a write up about it on spotties.com if you want more info!

[cvb]

Sure - and there is someone breeding "tiger" horses - gaited spotties :D

But no one seems to be able to say how to spot the Indian Shuffle - whether it just "happens" or if you need to train and develop it like the tolt.

[Harlequin]

I could be wrong......but i got the impression that it was a natural gait other than a developed one and was found in a lot of the foundation stock. It of course is very rare now due to the ongoing "legal" outbreeding of appys which has diluted many of the original features of the breed.

controversialsubjectprobablybestnottostirupoops

[cvb]

"your" (the spottie) article also implies it was actively bred out at one stage.

Fi is pretty much foundation stock - I'd just need to double check if she still qualified after they changed the criteria !

[cvb]

p.s. Tiger horse link is here http://www.tigerhorses.org/

[Just.Jump]

ahhah, my mare does the same thing. It's interesting to see that english riding doesn't do much of a jog actually. But anyways, the four beat trotting is amazing, isn't it? I ADORE it when I get my mare doing that, it's like gliding along on horseback. From experience it seems to be that the more rein you give a horse, the easier and more calmly it will go.

[Sunshine*]

The extra appy gait is known as the "indian shuffle" and is like a running gait which is very comfy and covers a lot of ground. Not as fast,bouncy or high stepping as the tolt.Theres a write up about it on spotties.com if you want more info!

Is it the same as the extra gait an Icelandic Pony has?? I LOVE that gait... they look like they are shuffling and sitting it feels like gliding on a cloud...