Aids for gaited horses?

[Santi]

Has anyone got a gaited horse and are there aids for the gaits?
I have an ex-trotter and when he is excited he doesn't jog he does a very fast, flat walking thing (i looked up about gaits so it could be a 'fox walk' or 'running walk'?, i can't see his feet! but it's very comfortable!)

I want to teach him to do this and also to walk and trot normally. When you ride a gaited horse do you just have "more gears" from walk to canter? So is going from walk to trot normally a bit like walk to canter on a nongaited horse, i.e. the horse learns by the strength of the aid how much to accelerate? Or are there a set of aids so he knows what i want?
Also does anyone know how i encourage him to do it?

[Wally]

Oh heck this is not one to answer on the forum!

Basically tou have collected walk, collected trot, collected tölt, collected canter etc going through meduim walk, trot, tölt, canter etc all the way up to extended gaits.

You must work every gait in every form to get what you want.

I don't have trotters, I have Icelandics, to take everything back to basics the better the walk the better the gaits. Running walk, on the road, will sound like "black and decker, black 'n' decker, black 'n' decker" rather than "clip clop"

With an Icelandic, unless they offer tölt you need to work all the other gaits he offers in all their forms as much as you can. Gaits don't come without balance.

If you over-do any of the gaits one of them will suffer, or with Icelandics can be lost. Acceleration is not the key

you need to learn to use the seat to communicate.

[jinglejoys]

http://www.gaitedmules.com/training.html
is this site any help?

[de_Stille_een]

Thank goodness- finally a question on gaited horses! Haha. I used to ride hunters/dressage, but switched over to training gaited horses a while ago- I love them! :D

I've never heard a running walk sound described as "black 'n' decker, black 'n' decker"- but it's a good one. Haha. For whatever reason, our words for the sound are "tick-a-pock-a-tick-a-pock-a" :p

You say he's an ex-trotter? Like a standardbred sulky racer? I'm afraid they're not exactly gaited- they're simply bred to trot extremely fast. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your discription of the horse.

A fox-trot, a running walk, and a tolt are distinctly gaits belonging to Missouri Fox-Trotters and Tennessee Walking Horses and Icelandic Horses respectively, and no other breed naturally has these gaits. However, your horse might have a lot of Walker or Fox-trotter blood in his lines, even if he’s registered under a different breed. I’ve had registered Fox Trotters who can do a running walk like a Tennessee Walker, and I’ve had registered Walkers who fox-trot! Papers mean nothing. Also, all gaited horses can do what is called a "speed walk," and most can “rack”- it's a very active walk, and very ground covering. This might be what your horse is doing, especially if he has a deep head nod with every step- (don’t discourage him from doing that! It’s good!)

If it’s faster than that, your horse might be racking- the step pattern is the same as the speed-walk, but it’s very very fast, there’s always at least one foot on the ground, and it’s extremely smooth. The idea is squareness. The square-er your horse is, the smoother he’ll be.

The aids for gaited horses are very similar to non-gaited horses, especially for a speed-walk. It definitely helps to have contact, and you use both legs- if it’s a speed-walk you want, simply have light contact, ask for a faster walk, and encourage the head nod- that’s it.

If it’s a rack your horse is trying to do, you’ll want to have a bit firmer of a contact before asking for more speed. It helps if you have a gravel road or driveway to ride on, or a makeshift “sound board” to ride on- (plywood, possibly with rubber mats over the top)- this enhances the sound and helps you hear if the horse is moving squarely. It should sound like a very fast metronome. If your horse isn’t smooth and isn’t square, get a firmer contact, and ask for more speed. Sometimes it’s easier for a horse to get into the rack coming down from the canter, instead of coming up from the walk. Once your horse is racking smoothly and squarely, you can lighten the contact more- use the minimum contact necessary to keep your horse square.

You might want to find a gaited-horse specialist to come out and help you once or twice- just to “diagnose” which gait your horse is doing, and how to help them stay in the gait!

[Santi]

Thanks for the info.

Yes he's a standardbred sulky racer so i know he isn't really naturally gaited, he's more like a horse who has no concept of there being 3 gaits (walk, trot, canter) but rather than he has four feet and can move all of them in any pattern he likes! He is pretty unbalanced sometimes and can do something that has the same rhythm as a canter but his legs are doing something else, i have watched him do it in the field and couldn't work out what he was doing!

The 'black-n-decker, black-n-decker' thing sounds right, he does it on the road more than on grass. I know this is a bit like trying to describe a taste and getting you lot to guess what the food is! ....but it feels very smooth, and has a slight side to side sway while his feet are doing double time, he had his head pretty much up and steady (but he was excited when he did it).
I'll have to try and encourage him to do it enough to get my partner to video it, then i could at least slow it down and get the foot sequence!

off topic but - Do any of you know if you breed a gaited horse to a non-gaited horse is it just 50/50 whether the offspring can do it or not?

[Wally]

It's a lottery if you breed gaited to non gaited, sometimes you might get a more stroonly gaited foal than the gaited parent. It all depends upon the breeding of the non gaited horse too. Lots of M&M UK types can tend towards gaits.

[Mossy]

Lots of M&M UK types can tend towards gaits.
Moss did a most peculiar pace yesterday. very different but very comfortable. He was spontaneously flying changing across rough ground on the moor and got his legs tangled. Whatever it was it worked for him for the moment and was very comfy for me so we went with it. Just don't ask me how we did it or to do it again!!!