Tennessee walking horse + video

The thing we have to remember is that the exaggerated gaits we see here certainly are NOT natural, the horses have been selectively bred, and trained for this purpose. JadeWisc you earlier asked if dressage was natural, well yes it is to a degree, you quite often see foals and youngsters performing piaffe and passaging around the wild - all horses are born with this ability, but selectively breeding warmbloods for bigger and better paces is not dissimiar to the breeding of gaited horses.
I'm sorry to say I would never support the training methods surrounding gaited horses, as far as I'm aware the methods are quite cruel, operating on a horse tail to make it stand up - just by a blinking arab!! Do they not also cut the foals ears in some cases to make them smaller? But then similarly methods in our training can also be though of as cruel e.g. arab trainers placing ginger in the rectum to make the horse hold its tail up and give it some life (This thankfully is banned but i'm sure it still happens) or Show Jumpers rapping thier horses over fences (also banned). So yes I'm against the showing of gated horses but feel we should look closer to home before critsizing overseas, what about clydesdales (sp?) wearing corrective shoes to make thier back feet turn out and thier hocks in? Just something to think about..
 
Let me lighten the mood with a little tale of "gingering". My friend had an Arab which she was showing in Condition and Turnout at a little local show. Having read up about gingering (but having no experience of it) she raided her mum's store cupboard to find it devoid of ginger. So she decided to try a pickled onion. All went well, horse prancing with tail in air.... then horse coughed... and farted.... pickled onion was ejected at great speed across the ring, narrowly missing the stewards ear.... friend very cross at me having hysterical fits of laughter at ringside, not realising what had happened...
 
well i wouldn't be laughing can you imaging how painful that is
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I think that's horrid. Yes, horses like this do have different paces from usual however in a lot of cases it is made to be exaggerated.

chriscrogul - How is THAT going to lighten the mood?! Thats blatant cruely. How would you like a pickled onion shoved up your a**?!
 
Probably no more painful than a lump of ginger, not saying its right or wrong.... I didn't know she'd done it until I saw it flying through the air.....
 
Yes it is cruel, but still, it does conjure up a very funny mental image!
 
The argument that dressage and jumping are also unnatural is weak. My horse can do both to a certain level (as can most people's horses here) but I have got her to do this without resorting to surgery to change her phisiology or using aparatus to alter her movement (no, i don't use a martingale).

That video clip showed a freakish-looking horse which has been forced in some way or other to move with a hugely exagerated action, completely obliterating any natural movement. It looks vile and it will never catch on in UK.
 
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It looks vile and it will never catch on in UK.

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and? Do you think it will break the bank for the TWH association if the UK never does it?
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That first clip was horrible, I couldn't watch it all, it was making me feel quite sick for some reason
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The natural gait of the TWH is OK and I don't have a problem with it, other horses have different gaits like the Paso Fino and Icelandic and I feel the same. That horse in the video just looked freakish and weird and wrong and NOT natural.
 
I know that we are not used to seeing gaited horses and so we are blinkered in our views however I didnt like the over exaggerated TWH in the utube clip at all. It just looked so forced and therefore unnatural.

Now this is just fasinating:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DytqyLjJd0A&mode=related&search=

Jadewisc: is this really a 'natural' gait for these horses and how come they dont just break into canter?
 
It looks like it to me. I am not an expert on these horses though as they are not my thing really. I have never found much appeal in them.
That does look alot nicer than the strange video first posted.
I would laugh if I were at a show and saw the first one! LOL
 
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It looks vile and it will never catch on in UK.

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and? Do you think it will break the bank for the TWH association if the UK never does it?
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No need to be so defensive, this isn't a personal attack on you or any of the other gaited horse fans.
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The general consensus is that this particular video clip shows a massively over-exagerated, unnatural and unattractive action in a horse. It has shocked most of us which is probably the reason flintus posted in the first place!
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I found this. I watch these shows on TV all the time where they go down the board walk and make a really interesting sound. reminds me of tap dancing! lol
Watch this and make sure you you watch all the way to the part in the middle where he takes the horse down the board and the music stops. I wonder how they train them to do this? I know that Paso finos are gaited, but this must take some training!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeFS6caYR94&mode=related&search=
 
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It looks vile and it will never catch on in UK.

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and? Do you think it will break the bank for the TWH association if the UK never does it?
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No need to be so defensive, this isn't a personal attack on you or any of the other gaited horse fans.
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The general consensus is that this particular video clip shows a massively over-exagerated, unnatural and unattractive action in a horse. It has shocked most of us which is probably the reason flintus posted in the first place!
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I'm not defensive!
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I am not a TWH fan either
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I do like to watch some gaited horses, but would never really get into it on a full scale. I just like to see different things at times. makes the horse world interesting

I have just been arguing all of the "Oh my! That poor horse! The horrors!" comments and giving a debate to an atlernative angle. I posted that comment to you about it not making a difference if the UK embraced it as I am not sure it would matter if they did. Not defensive, just fact
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I think it looks ridiculous as well btw and it is not my cup of tea at all
 
i'd love to know how many of those poor poor horses reach old age!
and yes top eventers do reach old age and still compete into thier late teens, i highly doubt the horse in the first vid will.
 
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i'd love to know how many of those poor poor horses reach old age!

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I am sure just as many of these horses reach old age and remain sound as the "top eventers" you speak of. I imagine the TW horses have FAR fewer fatal accidents though!
 
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I know that we are not used to seeing gaited horses and so we are blinkered in our views however I didnt like the over exaggerated TWH in the utube clip at all. It just looked so forced and therefore unnatural.

Now this is just fasinating:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DytqyLjJd0A&mode=related&search=

Jadewisc: is this really a 'natural' gait for these horses and how come they dont just break into canter?

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isn't that similar to "pacing"??
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqdCiWc-A2g&mode=related&search=

YUCK YUCK YUCK - do they have boots on their front hooves? Looks like it? The horses look awful, it looks as though there's something physically wrong with them and they're going to simply fall over in a heap at any moment.

There is natural and very very unatural.......

By the way, why do Americans scream and shout in these horse classes? Here in the UK, we all stay quiet and wouldn't dream of wooping!
 
I believe they have weighted blocks put on the horse's feet to make them step higher.
 
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I found this. I watch these shows on TV all the time where they go down the board walk and make a really interesting sound. reminds me of tap dancing! lol
Watch this and make sure you you watch all the way to the part in the middle where he takes the horse down the board and the music stops. I wonder how they train them to do this? I know that Paso finos are gaited, but this must take some training!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeFS6caYR94&mode=related&search=

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OMG its actually quite freaky. They must be tough little horses as that is one big bloke (with the yellow on) on the little bay. Would love to know how they get them to do that and just how natural that gait is - ie. how its been developed. Must send alot of shock up through the legs - but then saying that they seem to step fairly lightly and quickly.
 
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By the way, why do Americans scream and shout in these horse classes? Here in the UK, we all stay quiet and wouldn't dream of wooping!

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Careful! that's a sweeping generalisation and I think you are about to get rebuked for it. ouch!!
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Looking into it, apparently "soring" is done "to a substantial and disturbing degree" at TWH shows. Which involves "the application of irritating chemicals or mechanical devices to the legs of a show horse to increase his animation". "As many as 80 to 90 percent of show horses are sored to some degree"

"Various techniques have been used over the years, but the most common method is fairly simple. A few drops of mustard oil, kerosene or another irritating substance are brushed on the horse's front pasterns, often along with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) to increase the chemicals' absorption. Then the legs are covered with plastic wrap, bandaged and allowed to "cook" for a few days until they are tender to the touch.

Next, chains are placed around the horse's pasterns. Considered legal "action devices" in the industry, chains themselves are not harmful, but they rub against the already irritated skin and increase the horse's pain. In response, his gait becomes flashy: He picks up his sored feet more quickly and lifts them higher than normal, and he shifts some of his weight to his hind end to escape the pain up front."

How bloody awful. Taken from: http://valleyviewwalkers.com/page9.html

PS. Wasn't being nasty with my comment about Americans shouting in horse classes, but every American showing vid Ive seen generally has shouting / wooping etc. going on and even when I attended a show jump show in the US, they were still hollering etc. Just wondering why they do it and we don't!
 
I think its just that as a nation we are more reserved and the Americans are more flamboyant (for want of a better word). We tend to sit quietly and be good for fear of offending anyone and clap at the end, Americans tend to show their emotions more and cheer when they like something.

Different people, different cultures... horses for courses I think.
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By the way, why do Americans scream and shout in these horse classes? Here in the UK, we all stay quiet and wouldn't dream of wooping!

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..........except at Arab shows! I think the Brits are just more quiet about things, no excessive shows of emotion etc. On the other hand........football matches are very noisy.
 
I have a real thing about Pasos since I rode someones stallion, absolutely loved him, spirit and sense in a little package. Mind, it didn't move like that, I think they do a lot of training. Tough little cookies aren't they to carry that kind of weight? They are only small, 13.2h is normal, 14.2h is on the big side, 15h is a giant according to the people I know.

They do gait naturally, I've watched the foals doing it, but they are also quite capable, and willing to trot, canter and gallop normally as well, not like Pacers which have one pace........trot - in several gears
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqdCiWc-A2g&mode=related&search=


By the way, why do Americans scream and shout in these horse classes? Here in the UK, we all stay quiet and wouldn't dream of wooping!

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hmmm...maybe we are more enthusiastic and not as reserved?

Maybe our horss are not as spooky

Maybe we do not have big sticks up our bums

Maybe we are all just loud mouth idiotic fools

Maybe Americans do it because of George Bush
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or the more likely scenario

MAYBE PEOPLE SHOULD NOT BASE A WHOLE NATION AND HOW THEY BAHAVE ON A YOUTUBE VIDEO AT ONE HORSESHOW!
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btw....have you been to any football matches in the UK?...WOW that is some crazy behavior! Far beyond what happens normally here at a sporting event
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btw....have you been to any football matches in the UK?...WOW that is some crazy behavior! Far beyond what happens normally here at a sporting event
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ROFL!! yeah at least you dont all try to kill each other.... although that is also a bit of a sweeping generalisation!!
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