Gaited horses?

[michickenwrangler]

BC Competitive Trail Riders association.

Standardbreds are a blast to watch, but that pace is not so easy to ride! Not the big guys that used to race anyway, I think I lost my wisdom teeth that way. LOL

I watched one guy last summer with a standardbred. It was quite painful to watch his horse lurch to one side, fling his left legs forward, land, shift balance, lurch to the other side, fling right legs forward, land, shift balance, lurch left side forward ....

Trotting standardbreds are fairly common and also common for Arab crosses.

 

[patandchickens]

I have ridden pacing horses, sometimes at a really *fast* (by riding horse standards, not by harness-racing standards) pace due to things going wrong while trying to get the buggers to canter. Hoo boy! I loathe that the most of all gaits a horse can offer. It makes me not want to ever set butt on a camel

Although, I once briefly worked with a small round sorrel horse of undetermined parentage who would readily offer a very, very slow pace, you'd almost say it was a pacey walk only it was a totally-pure pace, that was sort of weirdly comfortable in its own way. Of course you were only moving maybe 1-2 mph at the time


Pat

 

[w c]

Try the flying pace on an Icelandic some day, LOL. You can take your hands off the reins and do like Kelly Reno in The Black Stallion, LOL.

 

[hlf1996]

My 4 year old AQHA gelding is naturally gaited. And he is beautiful when he trots and lopes

 

[robren]

Hi I have a 7 yr. old paso fino/qh gelding. I have been working on getting him to trot and do a collected canter. I am starting to wonder if I can being "fair" to him as this is not what he does naturally. He is a great guy and I am thinking of giving up my quest for the w-t-c gaits. Am I harming him by asking for gaits that are not his naturally? Thanks in advance.

 

[goodhors]

Hi I have a 7 yr. old paso fino/qh gelding. I have been working on getting him to trot and do a collected canter. I am starting to wonder if I can being "fair" to him as this is not what he does naturally. He is a great guy and I am thinking of giving up my quest for the w-t-c gaits. Am I harming him by asking for gaits that are not his naturally? Thanks in advance.

Not familiar with Paso's, but I don't think they trot at all. The ones I have seen going, had no trot gaits.

If your horse does not have a trot in his gaits, then it is beyond difficult for him to trot, unless his gaits or shoeing is messed up. He may fall into trotting while confused, but should be stopped instantly, not allowed to happen.

My question is WHY did you get a Paso, if you want to trot? There are MANY other breeds of horses that trot, if you want to do the common horse activities, showing.
Paso is bred to do gaits that are comfortable, culled from breeding if they don't gait well.

In other breeds, Tennessee Walker, a trotting one is a sin or badly shod. Gaited horses often need a nudge with shoes or skilled rider, to get gaits developed in the young horses. This teaches the muscle-memory needed to confirm the gaits, as horse matures and is used. TWH does NOT have a trot if he is a going well. Their riders want to AVOID that bumpy ride
at all costs!

Do you have any Paso trainers locally, that could help you with him? Maybe talk about his hoof trims or need for shoes, to get the trot gone. I don't think his value as a Paso will be good if he trots readily, should you ever want to show with Pasos or want to sell him.

We say it a lot, when folks ask why they are having problems with "Sparky". Buy the horse for the activity you WISH TO DO! If you want to do long distance rides, need comfort while riding anyplace, get the gaited horses. If you want to do horse shows, get a horse than suits the discipline you plan to do, whether it is Gymkhana, Pleasure classes, Jumping or Halter. Do NOT BUY the horse just because it is pretty or they have good PR from the Breed Office. Getting the wrong animal for your planned activities just means you are ALWAY working against his nature and body, trying to CHANGE how he does things. Makes both you and him very frustrated with each other!! Having the correct type animal for your discipline makes it EASY for horse to do the job you want, he is happy, YOU are happy, so things go along well.

And despite all breed advertising, every breed CAN NOT do every horse activity in a suitable fashion. Not made to go that way!! Might not have the correct mindset to do those things.

Yeah, a bit harsh here. I just see this same situation happen so often. Feel sorry for the horse, because "you can't turn a pig's ear into a silk purse. You just have an angry pig." Training and working with that horse, spending more money will NOT make him into a winner. Wrong type horse can NEVER perform to succeed in the wrong discipline that he is not built for. Locally we have Fresians trying to be the "everything" equine at shows. Just makes you shake your head about what the rider is thinking! Not suitable for those classes, waste of money to enter.

So ask your self why you got the Paso? Then what kind of horse things do you plan to do when "your equine" is trained? Your goals as a rider? Then see if Paso horse and horse goals are even close, to make your decisions about continuing training or getting a different horse. With no trot, you can greatly enjoy him in pleasure activities, trail riding in comfort. But when the Show class calls for a trot, horse has to trot or you are donating entries to the show. Judge can't place you if rules say trot and you don't. You may need to get a second W-T-C horse if you want to show. Maybe sell the Paso, so you can get a horse CAPABLE of doing what your horse goals require.

 

[michickenwrangler]

Hi I have a 7 yr. old paso fino/qh gelding. I have been working on getting him to trot and do a collected canter. I am starting to wonder if I can being "fair" to him as this is not what he does naturally. He is a great guy and I am thinking of giving up my quest for the w-t-c gaits. Am I harming him by asking for gaits that are not his naturally? Thanks in advance.

What goodhors said about the trot.

I ride at a gaited horse barn--despite owning an half-Arab--and while I have seen gaited horses trot, they usually only do so for a few strides before resuming a pace or lateral gait.

They CAN canter. Most gaited horse people choose not to. I have heard some gaited horse people say that cantering "ruins" the gait. However, the trainer at the barn says that usually that is due to bad training and riders not knowing how to ask for a canter rather than a canter inherently being bad. Also, some gaited horse people LIKE to perpetuate the myth that they can't canter.

That being said, these gaited horse people do show at local county fair shows where the vast majority of horses trot and canter. The gaited horse people will do a "dog walk" for first gait, a "flat walk" for second gait and a "running walk" for third gait, eliminating the need to canter. A woman I ride with used to own a gorgeous red roan paso fino mare. She took the horse into the county fair show one year, where she consistently came in last in all of her classes. In the English Equitation class, I was very surprised with her last place (5th out of 5) when the woman who came in 4th was slouching and see-sawing at the reins while my friend had very quiet hands and sat upright. So I asked to speak to the judge about the placing. The judge explained that since my friend didn't have to post, her "degree of difficulty" wasn't as high and that the riders posting had "more to do". I still don't agree with her placing my friend last in that class though.

A paso fino/AQHA cross probably wouldn't be my first choice for a show horse since the paso part would make the QH half look "hot" compared to other stock breeds in the show ring and the QH half would make the paso half inconsistent as far as gait goes. There really aren't any shows for half-pasos so this horse would be better for pleasure riding or trail riding.

If the horse is more important to you than showing, look into an alternative discipline like judged trail rides, Competitive Mounted Orienteering or something along that line.

 

[genuck]

I used to breed and show Paso Finos, have owned TWH and spotted saddle horses.

Paso's come in 3 styles, fino are the ones with the super shot collected gait that sounds like a machine gun, then you have pleasure and performance type. I had performance/pleasure types and believe a paso should be able to do both. Performance is just more collected with more brio. Brio is the 'spirit' kind of hot but controlled and not spooky or stupid. If you were to equate the gates to a trotting horse fino=piaffe, corto=collected trot, largo=extended trot. I would love to have another Paso, Colombian with a nice fast Largo. They are small and very agile, I hear most have pretty good cow sense too and have heard of a few ranchers who use nothing else. They also excel at endurance. My paso's could ride all day and still be ready to go, even when the Walkers were ready to drop.

And no, paso's should not trot and training one to do it devalues him greatly. It's like trying to train your QH to corto.

P.S. Paso's should be able to go barefoot, if anything for shows they use light weight aluminum shoes just to make the footfall sound louder on the boards.

 

[equinehugger3]

I'm in love with Paso Fino gaits.

 

[ca]

We have Paso Finos (had for 15 years). We do not show and do not insists in perfect gaits. We ride almost daily through anything from sandy washes to very rough terrain. We love our Paso Finos because they ARE very comfortable and also very strong. We can easily go for 5 hours in hot weather. Although we don't race or try to be fast on our trips, the Pasos love to lope every now and then. They are in general very fast. Even their slow pace is faster than what neighboring non-paso fino horses do. That's really the only disadvantage.
For us these are the perfect trail companions. They do require at least intermediate riding experience though. At least our 4 boys are very stubborn and will take full advantage of beginners .