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[RC] How to tell what gait is what - A. Perez

.. when on the horse.  Not always easy.  Also, there are SO
many terms used to describe gait, it gets confusing.
Check out the articles in The Gaited Horse website:
http://www.gaitedhorses.net/GHArticles.html

It helps if you can spend some time watching gaited horses
and getting to understand their gaits.  Usually what is meant by
'gaited' is a gait faster then a regular walk that is a
4-beat gait.  When a horse trots or paces, it moves pairs of 
fore-and-hind legs in unison, so that they hot the ground at 
the same time.  There is a period of time when no foot is on 
the ground, so when the horse comes down, all it's weight
comes down.  This is why the trot (and pace) is 'bumpy'.
All 'gaiting' gates are varients on the trot or the pace
In a pace, the legs on one side move together (ie: it is a 
lateral gait), while at the trot, diagonally opposite legs
move together (ie it is a diagonal gait). When 'gaiting',
the paired legs are NOT moving in perfect unison: one hits
the ground before or after the other so the gait becomes four-
beated.  If a horse paces, but one foot hits the gound just 
slightly after the other leg on the same side, it is called a 
'stepping pace'.  The cadence is something like 1-2-----3-4.
If the foot-falls are equally spaced apart, 1--2--3--4, it
is 'square' (the most desireable,as it is the smoothest) 
running-walk. 

 If the gait is diagonal, but 4-beat, it is called fox-trot.

I'm not sure if the 'single-foot' is a diagonal or lateral gait.
If you are talking about Icelandic ponies or Paso Finos, they 
have their own set of terms for the different gaits that
I am not familiar with.

To tell what your horse is doing, count the foot-falls out loud.
It may help if you put a hand back on one of your horses hips, 
so you can feel when the hind foot is moving and landing.
If you can post to the gait, it is probably a trot, but could 
be a pace.  Also, if when you sit the gait there is a noticible 
bounce-bounce-bounce, it is probably a trot or pace. If it is a 
pace, you will feel considerable side-to-side motion, and if 
you sit to it, you will find yourself twisting at the waist.  
If the gait is hard to post to, he may be gaiting: counting out 
the footfalls will tell you what the feet are doing.  Watching 
your shadow in the early morning or the late afternoon can also 
help you 'see' what he is doing.


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