Appaloosa shuffle

The hoof beat noise reminds me of an icelandic gait. There is always a foot on the ground and it looks very comfortable but definitely odd to most horsey folks here. I would be interested to see how the horse moves in whichever other paces it has.
 
It makes me quite sad really that we are so ignorant to gaited horses in the UK (bar pacers and the odd Icelandic). OK, that video is not the best advert for gaited horses but extra gaits are not a 'bad thing'. As someone with a bad back I'd love a gaited horse as trot can be an issue for me, so a smooth but 'faster than walk' gait like a running walk, shuffle etc... sounds very tempting.

If anyone remembers Enfys who used to be on here, I always admired her gaited horses.
 
Faracat said:
It makes me quite sad really that we are so ignorant to gaited horses in the UK (bar pacers and the odd Icelandic). OK, that video is not the best advert for gaited horses but extra gaits are not a 'bad thing'. As someone with a bad back I'd love a gaited horse as trot can be an issue for me, so a smooth but 'faster than walk' gait like a running walk, shuffle etc... sounds very tempting.

If anyone remembers Enfys who used to be on here, I always admired her gaited horses.
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I'm not ignorant on gaited horses (far from it) but the one above just cannot maintain the gait, hence my comment above :)
 
Mine shuffles when he wants to rush home but I won't let him trot. Perhaps there's some pacer in him 🤔
It is very comfortable. It's feels like a rolling walk. Once he keeps it away from dressage judges he can shuffle away😏
 
Cortez said:
That's probably a part bred gaited horse, like a cross with Missouri Foxtrotter, mangalarga horse, Tennessee Walker or similar. Nothing wrong with it (apart from being fat) and extremely comfortable to ride.
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This, just needs to loose weight.

My appy had a werid lope, could get a proper canter out of him but he could also do this lope thing.

Showed the vet when she was out seeing another and she said he is fine, some appaloosas apparently have this. She spent time in America so met quite a few.
 
My farrier has horses who move similar to that, but much more freely if you get my drift. He calls them amblers and breeds them as crosses out of standardbred mares and is very particular about the movement. They are used for the long trips into the back country that he does complete with pack horses. He likes to cover big distances but the terrain is usually unsuitable for cantering on. His horses are known to be comfortable, safe, sensible and surefooted.
 
The Fuzzy Furry said:
I'm not ignorant on gaited horses (far from it) but the one above just cannot maintain the gait, hence my comment above :)
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I agree, I like watching gaited horses. I don't think that horse is level, to me its footfall isn't consistent or fluent like the gaited horses I've seen. Maybe it's not entirely natural to it. It's making me think 'PSSM'.

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ycbm said:
I agree, I like watching gaited horses. I don't think that horse is level, to me its footfall isn't consistent or fluent like the gaited horses I've seen. Maybe it's not entirely natural to it. It's making me think 'PSSM'.

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Most of the gaited horses you've seen are probably better trained and more talented but they aren't all born to gait fluently, it can need a lot of training. I wouldn't think there was much wrong with it except being allowed to slop along without impulsion on a loose rein in an inconsistent rhythm. I will admit mine can change gait half a dozen times in 100 yards, one day we'll improve.
 
There's a lot more gaited and gaited x horses around than people in the UK know about.

A lot of the Spanish bred breeds throw up odd moving ones, I think it was bred out of the PRE and Lusitanio but they were foundation stock for the new world breeds. Obviously you get the famous gaited ones, like Pasos and Walking horses, but the genes don't just vanish.

The Appaloosa shuffle is apparently fairly well known in America, I've heard of gaited registered paints and an ambling Quarter horse. There was apparently a crabbet Arab line that threw some ambling horses, and I saw a connemara who paced from birth in this country and had to be really nagged to trot. She was a good mare aside from that!

I think the horse in the video has a poor gait and doesn't seem able to sustain it, but I don't know if that's a schooling issue or something more sinister. It's fat, mind!

I wish we'd kept our British gaited horses around, I think we lost something special there.
 
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