Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Appaloosas can gait too.  But not all of them, and the ones that do can gait differently than others. 

 

Similar to the posts regarding the Arabians breeding the gait out of the breed, the same thing has happened with Appaloosas.  Why did this happen?  I don't know about the Arabs but "back in the day" when rules were being formed for the Appaloosa show ring classes, the only acceptable gaits were determined to be walk, trot, canter.  "Back in the day" previous to that most Appaloosas had a natural gait most often referred to as the "Indian Shuffle". If you would like to read a really old, really good article on this go to our website www.hurricaneranch.net and scroll down to the navigation bar on the bottom left and click on "Indian Shuffle". 

 

I can visulize all those "old timers", shaking and scratching their heads and saying " What am I going to do if I want to show my horse in Western Pleasure, etc., my horse does this shuffle gait and I can't make him stop."

What happened was..... the Appaloosa Horse Club started allowing registered Appaloosas to be bred to registered Quarter Horses.  (They still allow this and Arabians and Thoroughbreds as well.)  Over the years, the gait was bred plumb out of them.  However, there were (and still are) many breeders that did not go along with that train of thought.  These breeders recognized the value of their animals, not in the show ring, but as riding and working horses.  Most of those "shuffler" bloodlines that exist today came from the Pacific Northwest breeders.  We have those lines in our breeding program.  As Bill tells folks that ask about the shuffle "We cannot escape it."  Nor do we want to.  

 

If you are a gaited horse person, you may subscribe to the "Gaited Horse Magazine". There is an article in the Breed Profile section of the Winter 2005 edition, titled "Gaited Foundation Appaloosa".  The article includes a photo of one of our 2003 foals, shown gaiting at one day old.  In fact, the cover of the magazine is a photo manipulation of that same photo done by someone on the magazine staff. 

 

In recent years all gaited horse breeds have gotten very popular,not only in endurance riding, but in competitive trail as well.  Folks who have had knee/leg/ankle surgeries, folks with arthritis, and just plain old folks like me have discovered the joy in being able to ride again on a smooth gaited horse.  Some Appaloosa breeders have discovered this as well and are crossing their Appaloosas( that do not have the shuffle gait genetics) with other breeds such as TWH, MFT, etc.  The resulting offspring will have a gait consistent with their gaited parent, but its not the "Indian Shuffle" and they are not registerable with the ApHC. 

 

Bill and I love distance riding. AERC and NATRAC are all we do.  We love doing it on our foundation Appaloosas and we know that you all love doing it on your breed of choice, registered or not.

 

Sorry if I went on too long..............Merry