In the early 80s I rode my QH stud quite a bit with
a friend who rode a nice Saddlebred stud. It was a sort of "odd
couple" pair. Scot, my horse, had a nice business like single foot/runing
walk, until I pushed for a lot of miles at a big trot on 50s and up, then the
good walk kind of went away. (Husband wasn't happy I spoiled his
horse)
Linda's horse was naturally gaited, had a good, big
time rack he used when the trail suited it. Had great trot
too.
Every now and then Scot would start copying Super's
gait and they would just go flying down the trail, side by side, both in a four
beat gait.
I'll bet Heidi remembers both of these
horses.
In 2000 and 2001 I rode Andrea's good Arab gelding
and I'm not sure if it was a true "gait" or not but his power walk was so fast
and smooth it was a dream to ride. A lot of drive, but still fun. Not
quite a square, 4 beat, a little broken rythym to it. I tried to
time him on part of the rolling areas on the Prineville trail that has mile
markers and he was taking less than 8/9 minutes a mile, just walking, rocks,
turns, lumps, and all. On a good road I know it was a lot
faster.
Only thing wrong, had to coax him to slow up or
your friends had to trot a bunch to stay with him.
And his power trot was to die for!
It's hard to teach a horse to really walk unless
you ride alone.
