Learning to Gait

 We are spending a little under a week near Branson, MO so we can spend some down time playing tourist and exploring the Branson area.

We are staying at a really nice horse motel. We have electric and water hook-up for the LQ. The horses are in 20' x 10' stalls with some cover, so they are in one of their favorite types of accommodations. There are trails off the property.

This is a boarding barn. One of the boarders is a young girl who just purchased a Missouri Fox Trotter. Missouri Fox Trotters are gaited horses.

A gaited horse will traditionally have a four-beat gait. When walking, each foot will fall individually, following a precise pattern. Most gaited horses follow a pattern of right hind, right front, left hind, left front or right front, left hind, left front, right hind. Upon closer observation, this pattern should be rather obvious. 

Additionally, when you watch a gaited horse walk from the side, you will notice that both legs on one side will move forward simultaneously. The rear foot will always fall before the front foot.

Naturally Gaited Horse Breeds

 Some of the most common gaited horse breeds include the following:

• American Saddlebred
• American Standardbred
• Icelandic Horse
• Tennessee Walking Horse
• Paso Fino
• Peruvian Paso
• Rocky Mountain Horse
• Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse
• Appaloosa
• Missouri Fox TrotterSome gaited horses will naturally do a four beat gait. It's an extended walk that is very smooth.

But not all gaited horses know how to gait and if you have never ridden a gaited horse, you have no idea how to get them into a gait or even how it feels.

One way to teach a gaited horse how to gait is to have the newbie horse follow an experienced horse. The newbie horse will automatically imitate the experienced horse and fall into a natural gait.

So, this girl had bought a Missouri Fox Trotter, but didn't know how to gait or even what it was like. So, Ari offered to lead her horse in the arena and get her horse into a gait. It was really cool to watch the transformation as that horse showed he could gait just as fine as Lennox.

You can watch the video here.

When we have ridden at Day of the Horse in Woodside, other riders with gaited horses have asked if they can ride with us so their horses can learn how to gait from Lennox. Always great results. Lennox is a master instructor on how to gait.