Re: [RC] gaits across the Eadie chart - Peggety123
I have a Foxtrotter who came to me just pacing under saddle....he would only trot at liberty in the arena or round pen. He also did a stepping pace (which I thought was a foxtrot until I took him to a foxtrotter show).
I then took him to a Foxtrotter show barn and asked the trainers opinion on him....could he be trained to do a real foxtrot....at the time I was thinking of showing him. They told me to teach him to trot under saddle first, by breaking up his gait over trot poles...get him to move diagonal so I could get him to do a foxtrot easier. I started with 4 poles on the ground....it was impossible for him to pace over these poles, so he figured out to trot with me on his back over these poles....I then began reducing the number of poles until I only needed one. I was using a voice command with him...."Trot" along with the poles. After about 3 weeks of commitment to this training, I was able to get him to trot with just a voice command....no poles. He was very awkward to trot in circles under saddle though....I practiced it for a while and he got more coordinated....I've left him in a pasture for a year (concentrating on another horse), and now he is back to being awkward in a circle at the trot.....I believe he is very "hard wired" to be pacey so I've decided not to mess with him anymore, schooling him at the trot.....we just work at the walk, stepping pace, foxtrot (which I learned how to cue him for) and the most spectacular running walk you could ever dream of! Man, he covers the miles - I've been next to cantering Arabs while my guy gaited along (running walk)at a nice low heart rate, compared to what it would have been at the canter. Another thing I do is to ride him over plowed fields or other real rough terrain....this makes him pick up a foxtrot over a stepping pace - a lateral gate is hard for him to do over this type of terrain.
It was handy to have him learn to trot for the vet checks though....the first endurance ride I took him to, I had 4 vets trying to figure out what the heck he was doing and if he was sound....(he was only pacing) and of course, his head was bobbing back and forth!
Fun horse to ride....love my Arab too though...despite the "bounce".
