Pacing in trot.

[Birker2020]

My WB gelding who I have had for six years did a dressage test a couple of weeks ago as part of a one day event at local riding club level. The dressage judge's comments and marks were varying and we scored our second nine for trotting up the centre line. However one of her comments on the sheet stated that she saw my horse was 'pacing' in trot on one of the circles. This remark was of particular interest to my friend who is a veterinary physio and had worked on my horse recently identifying a couple of sore spots. This is the first time this has ever been picked on with our dressage tests, normally we compete at unaff. novice and elementary level.

My friend believes it is to do with his bone spavin which has had a rather lot of treatment for last year when first diagnosed and I have no reason to doubt her opinion. But what I can't understand is that it is only mild bone spavin and he is certainly not lame with it. For the one day event he had been buted up to make him feel more comfortable so I am not really sure why he should suddenly start pacing at the age of thirteen.

Does anyone have a horse who paces every now and again to throw some light on this for me?

 

[Trolt]

What I'd be interested to know when the judge said he was "pacing" was did he go 4 beat in his trot, or did he go 2 beat lateral.
Both slightly different things.
As a rider of gaited horses I'm impressed a judge recognised it as oppose to saying lame/unbalanced/hind end not engaged.

A lot of horses will go lateral when they get tense or unbalanced. You know when you're out hacking and someones horse starts jogging, or having a temper tantrum and the rider sits their rolling their eyes telling the horse to stop passaging? Well often the horse is going lateral and not passaging. So it's not uncommon, just that people don't recognise it.

It would be worth getting the physio to check him over, incase something is sore, and making sure the saddle isn't restricting. Unfortunatley without seeing what he did it's harder to advise. It might be that he put in a little canter hope which sent his legs in the wrong order and then looked lateral or 4 beat depending. It might be that he just dragged his back end for half a stride which can again have the same effect.
I wouldn't be outwardly worried, but I would try and video a few schooling sessions to see if it was a one off, or if it happens regularly without you realising. This might also help work out why he is doing it.

Without knowing what the judge meant by pacing I can attempt to shed some light, so apologies if this is unhelpful. I also have no knowledge of whether a bone spavin would effect or not ... so sorry about no help there.

 

[Brandy]

I would imagine that the judge meant that the horse was still two time, but that near fore and near hind legs moved together, and off fore and off hind together.

This is what most people will know as pacing I think and is very easy to see, espeically if you are a dressage judge.

As to why your horse was doing this I'm afraid I can't help - could you tell he was doing it? You ought to have been able to feel it in some way.

My dog used to do it as she got older and arthritic, think it was an easier way of going for her.