Pacing and lateral gaites

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GirlFriday

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Following on from the Highland x TB thread that moved onto CBs was thinking about us riding horses that were bread to pull... I was always told that back in the day (think Chaucer, not 1970s!) there were ridden horses with different, supposedly more comfy, gaites and that they died out because as road surfaces improved wheeled transport, which stays more level behind a ttrot required different animals.

And now of course we, through dressage etc, very much insist on the importance of diagonal trot ridden. In fact, with the exception of the Icelandic tolt I can't think of any competitions that encourage other gaites.

Does anyone more knowledgeable than me know if the 'history' had any basis in fact and if there are other gaites still celebrated today?
 
Palfreys were the riding horses from the Middle ages that you are thinking of. Their extra gait was called the amble and it was four beat.

There are breeds that still perform these gaits, they're just very rare over here. Ask Enfys about her wonderful Paso Finos. :D

It might make you laugh, but a video of a Paso was posted on here a while back and it showed how unused to gaited horses we are as so many people thought that the horse was lame or even cruelly treated. It's quite sad when you think about it, how ignorant we are to other gaits over here. I do wonder if the treatment of Walking horses has made people think that anything gaited must be cruelly treated?
 
We have a few pacers around here (gypsy racing sulky) who have a lateral trot. They go incredibly fast.
Pasos have extra gaits for comfort. Fast legs!
There's the Icelandic tolt
And there's another that I can't remember the name of that has an additional gait somewhere between trot and canter
 
The much abused Tenessee Walking Horse also has a trot which is particularly comfortable. Years ago we entertained an American business friend, who in his later years opted for this breed of horse because it was so comfortable.

What is seen in American Show rings is appalling.
 
Oh, I remember the Paso thread now! And actually, rewatching the videos of the foals you can see why it would be so comfy... The back stays incredibly stable quite naturally... Makes riding a bouncy trot seem like a rather silly idea!

I've never seen gypsy pacers... Maybe one for Google later as nothing like that near here.
 
Oh, it would be lovely to see a TWH with its natural gaites. I had a lot of fun tolting, although, tbh, would probably rather ride something bigger regularly (I'm not huge bit like to feel supported if that makes sense, so something 15h ish and not overly slender!)
 
Yes, they are standardbred pacers (the odd standardbred trotters too). The ones near us are owned by gypsies and are trained to sulky race.

Pacing is faster than the normal trot.
 
The Livestock Conservancy and Mississippi State University are conducting a study into gait analysis, the CBHS North America are submitting video footage for the project. It is estimated this research may take a year.
 
There are actually quite a lot of breed that have lateral gaits - just not in Europe! You can think of the "extra" gaits as falling somewhere on the continuum between trot (two-beat, diagonal pairs of legs in sync) and pace (more or less two-beat, same-side or lateral pairs of legs in sync). Gaits with an even four-beat footfall include the Icelandic Tolt (also called e.g. "rack" for some of the North American saddle-type horses). If that four beat shifts a bit more towards trot, you get something like a fox-trot (which is the desirable gait for fox trotters). A shift more towards pace is e.g. a recognized gait for Mangalarga Marchador horses from Brazil. It depends on the breed which version of the lateral gait is desired, and at what speed. I think much of the confusion comes from the different names for essentially the same gaits that are being used by the different breeds societies. There are also many breeds where the only gait faster than walk desired and trained is a (or several versions of a) lateral gait, and trot/canter are not ridden or trained at all. As far as I am aware, Icelandics are the only breed where horses are systematically trained to show lateral gaits in addition to trot, not instead of (though I may be wrong on that account...). There are quite a lot of breed-specific competitions in the Americas, and not all are as horrific as the TWH celebration! In fact, there are competitions specifically for "normal" shod horses (no weird stilts allowed).

I've heard that gaited horse breeds survived particularly in areas where people spent a lot of time in the saddle (south American cow herders, north American plantation owners, Iceland with poor roads until recently) because these horses are more comfortable. Makes sense to me, but I'm not sure how well founded that statement is.
 
I have a little mare out of a hackney dam who has 5 distinct gaits. She can dressage and is obedient to all her gaits so generally only shows walk, trot, canter; however, out hacking I sometimes ask for a fox-trot type gait which is sooooooooooooooooooo comfortable to sit to. It's surprisingly fast, we call it her running walk as it comes out of a well defined rack.

(she also used to do in between gaits, but thankfully has outgrown those now! Sometimes I had no idea what her legs were up to & in what order)
 
Since this thread was started I looked up definitions of the Tennessee Walking Horse, it is described as having a running walk. There is another American breed called a Foxtrotter. Yes the origins of these breeds was comfort for riders, e.g Planatation owners who spent hours in the saddle.
 
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