# Gaited horse appreciation thread!



## twhvlr (Jul 5, 2017)

I’ll try to get some in the next few days. I need my DH’s help cause as soon as they see a camera/ phone pointing at them, they get too close or right in your face. They aren’t the most beautiful right now as we’ve not really started shedding the winter fuzzies yet. It was in the 50’s today and possibility of snow tomorrow. March is usually our snowiest month and as we need the moisture, I’ll take anything we can get!


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## SomersetJoy (Jan 4, 2021)

This is the Missouri Fox Trotter I used to show. She was a pain sometimes but a real performer for the judges. 







This is Tayler post-bath time.







This is a mid-workout shot. We were preparing for a Gaited Pleasure Romel class at the time. She was an amazing horse to go on long trail rides with and she could handle any rough terrain I ever rode her on. She really liked showing off in the show ring too


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## boatagor (Jun 27, 2017)

Dylan is a 13 yo Tennessee Walking Horse. He's my first gaited horse and it's been an interesting rabbit hole to dive down, although it is also incredibly frustrating. We are moving this weekend to a more English/dressage centered barn from a "gaited horse" barn and I think we will both enjoy the challenge, change of philosophy and difference in attitude. 

He looks like a different horse in winter vs summer. Picture with the saddle was a few weeks ago in his winter fuzzies. The other was in the summer when he is golden and beautiful.


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## dogpatch (Dec 26, 2017)

boatagor said:


> Dylan is a 13 yo Tennessee Walking Horse. He's my first gaited horse and it's been an interesting rabbit hole to dive down, although it is also incredibly frustrating. We are moving this weekend to a more English/dressage centered barn from a "gaited horse" barn and I think we will both enjoy the challenge, change of philosophy and difference in attitude.
> 
> He looks like a different horse in winter vs summer. Picture with the saddle was a few weeks ago in his winter fuzzies. The other was in the summer when he is golden and beautiful.


Boatagor, you're not wrong about it being and interesting and sometimes frustrating rabbit hole! Good luck at your new barn!


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## dogpatch (Dec 26, 2017)

This is Dixie, my 19 year old TWH mare.


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## autumn rain (Sep 7, 2012)

Here is my TWH, KlassyGirl. She is 19 years old, here with her winter coat on, all fuzzy. She is my first gaited horse. Wish I would have gone gaited sooner. Just loving it!


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## trailhorserider (Oct 13, 2009)

dogpatch said:


> Boatagor, you're not wrong about it being and interesting and sometimes frustrating rabbit hole! Good luck at your new barn!


Gee guys, that's not been my experience. I dove into Missouri Fox Trotters after owning many non-gaited horses and haven't looked back! That's not to say I wouldn't own a non-gaited horse if it were perfect for me in every other way. But all things being equal, I would picked a gaited horse every time. 

I had ridden a few (mainly Fox Trotters but also a few Walkers) before I ever owned one and they are usually pretty expensive out west (I'm sort of at the low-end of the horse market). But I had a neighbor that was into them and that allowed me to ride a few over the years. Then I found my first gaited horse, a MFT mare and had a blast on her! She came pregnant, I raised my first foal (boy was that a struggle) and eventually I rehomed them and another wonderful MFT came into my life. She's my only horse right now and she is just an awesome, awesome horse for me. We "just" trail ride.

I did buy a handful of books and researched gaits and watched a ton of videos online. Just basically tried to learn as much as I could, especially about identifying gaits. 

I really had no issues going from non-gaited to gaited. It's been nothing but fun! As a matter of fact, I can't understand why a lot more people aren't riding gaited horses, especially for trails. They move out so nice and smooth and quick, they are perfect trail horses.

I would be curious at what you guys found frustrating. Maybe it was the people you were around? Because even before I knew anything about gaits, and the horses pretty much shifted gears in and out on their own, I found it nothing but fun and thrilling. I would get the biggest grin when I hit a good gait!

Here is my current Fox Trotter mare. So sweet and affectionate and a fabulous trail horse. And actually my first MFT mare was sweet and affectionate too. I don't know if that's a mare thing, a MFT thing, or just random luck. But I've really adored my gaited mares for their personalities as much as their gaits.


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## twhvlr (Jul 5, 2017)

My experience hasn’t been frustrating either. In fact, if I had to go back to non-gaited, I wouldn’t ride at all nor own any horses! Mine have been the sweetest, most friendly horses that one could ask for. Now getting the gait that I want can be a little frustrating at times but with education (mine and their’s) we‘ve pretty much worked it out.
I will say that some of the myths that I was told in the beginning of my gaited horse journey made things harder at first but then living in the middle of nowhere, I’ve never had the luxury of having lessons or a trainer.


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## trailhorserider (Oct 13, 2009)

And they come in such fun colors too! Black is my favorite color and I love greys too, and those colors seem to be a lot more common in gaited breeds than the generic stock type horses where I live. 

This was my other MFT mare and her foal. He is the most gorgeous thing EVER! Just a little to much horse for me. His daddy was a QH, and my MFT mares have been so awesome that I blame his difficult half on the QH side of the family, ha ha! But he's extremely people-oriented too.


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## trailhorserider (Oct 13, 2009)

twhvlr said:


> My experience hasn’t been frustrating either. In fact, if I had to go back to non-gaited, I wouldn’t ride at all nor own any horses! Mine have been the sweetest, most friendly horses that one could ask for. Now getting the gait that I want can be a little frustrating at times but with education (mine and their’s) we‘ve pretty much worked it out.
> I will say that some of the myths that I was told in the beginning of my gaited horse journey made things harder at first but then living in the middle of nowhere, I’ve never had the luxury of having lessons or a trainer.


Never say never though! Because a while back I rode one of my neighbor's non-gaited horses after riding nothing but Fox Trotters for several years. And this horse was a Mustang/grade. Anyway, when I first got on him, I was like, WOW, his walk is so different. Hmm. All these short, choppy little steps! But then when I got used to his walk, his trot and canter were actually to-die-for. We rode for about 3-4 hours and later on that evening I realized, hey this horse wasn't gaited and he was actually incredibly smooth to the point that I really didn't even notice he wasn't gaited (other than his walk). But he is the exception rather than the rule. But I thought afterwards, hey, I would buy this horse!

I never had lessons or a trainer either. Other than I sent the colt out for training. But I've never really had riding lessons of any kind, much less on gaited horses.


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## boatagor (Jun 27, 2017)

trailhorserider said:


> Gee guys, that's not been my experience. I dove into Missouri Fox Trotters after owning many non-gaited horses and haven't looked back! That's not to say I wouldn't own a non-gaited horse if it were perfect for me in every other way. But all things being equal, I would picked a gaited horse every time.
> 
> I had ridden a few (mainly Fox Trotters but also a few Walkers) before I ever owned one and they are usually pretty expensive out west (I'm sort of at the low-end of the horse market). But I had a neighbor that was into them and that allowed me to ride a few over the years. Then I found my first gaited horse, a MFT mare and had a blast on her! She came pregnant, I raised my first foal (boy was that a struggle) and eventually I rehomed them and another wonderful MFT came into my life. She's my only horse right now and she is just an awesome, awesome horse for me. We "just" trail ride.
> 
> ...


My frustration is not AT ALL in regards to the gaited horses themselves. My gelding (until recently) has been the easiest, sweetest, most wonderful horse to handle I have ever been around. He is mostly fun to ride and I enjoy every minute I spend with him. He is beautiful, and playful, and curious, and willing to please. I grew up around horses that were hard to catch, hard to handle, hard to ride...my experience with him has been the total opposite (again, recently, but we are going to fix that!).

My frustration is completely in regards to "gaited horse people" and that may be 100% my geographical location and the types of people I have been involved with. Which is why I am moving him to a barn that's completely different and more centered on growing the relationship with the horse, and learning and growing as a horseperson, no matter the breed or type of saddle I am using.

I am like you. I am always reading and watching videos and researching and learning new things. The people I have been around have no interest in learning new things or being open-minded. It's "you use this bit with a walker, this saddle, you need this certain type of shoe, you treat them this certain way because that's how we train them around here."

Your mare is beautiful!

Edit: I will say the gaited horse people I have "met" online have been a lot more willing to go outside of the box, so to say, than the people I have been with in real life.


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## dogpatch (Dec 26, 2017)

trailhorserider said:


> I would be curious at what you guys found frustrating. Maybe it was the people you were around? Because even before I knew anything about gaits, and the horses pretty much shifted gears in and out on their own, I found it nothing but fun and thrilling. I would get the biggest grin when I hit a good gait!


In the TWH breed, there is a strong tendency to pace in some lines. I did not know this when I bought my horse and she was a hard pacer, as it turns out. It wasn't just the pacing, it was bad feet, lack of coordination and braciness. So I discovered that my horse was pretty awful to ride. The search for awareness was fraught with really awful advice, shoeing myths, and a near total cluelessness about how to go about correcting the mess I'd just gotten myself into.

As it happens, I do a lot of clicker training and I had used that to shape a trot "misfire" in a Morgan mare into a delightful fox trot. So I thought if I could teach a non-gaited horse to gait, I was probably capable of resolving my new mare's problems. At 17, the mare was tight from a lifetime of upheaded pacing and unresponsive to leg aids. 

We are entering our third year together and I've developed her coordination, corrected her inverted frame, softened her, taught her leg aids, improved her feet and have taught her to gait fairly reliably. She is not strong at gaiting yet because we had so much other baggage to clear away. Now that she understands solidly what I am asking for, she can produce it, so we've "got the behavior, getting it consistently, and adding duration." She consistently needs a slow, relaxed warmup with much lateral work before she is mentally and physically prepared for gaiting work.

The mare is a delight, she has never been the frustration. It is the shroud of misinformation, the breeders selecting for pace because it actually produces a better big lick, the tripping, and the awful shoeing practices that lead to hoof degeneration that have been frustrating to overcome.


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## boatagor (Jun 27, 2017)

trailhorserider said:


> And they come in such fun colors too! Black is my favorite color and I love greys too, and those colors seem to be a lot more common in gaited breeds than the generic stock type horses where I live.
> 
> This was my other MFT mare and her foal. He is the most gorgeous thing EVER! Just a little to much horse for me. His daddy was a QH, and my MFT mares have been so awesome that I blame his difficult half on the QH side of the family, ha ha! But he's extremely people-oriented too.
> View attachment 1110291
> ...


I agree on the colors! My gelding has a lot of black in his tail, and it makes it look more silvery than white. I had never seen a palomino with that coloring before. He also dapples up so beautifully and I hadn't seen that in person before, either.


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## trailhorserider (Oct 13, 2009)

boatagor said:


> I agree on the colors! My gelding has a lot of black in his tail, and it makes it look more silvery than white. I had never seen a palomino with that coloring before. He also dapples up so beautifully and I hadn't seen that in person before, either.


I would call that a sooty palomino. He's gorgeous! Here is a MFT my neighbor owned for a while and she was a similar color, but I think your guy is prettier!









I guess I have been lucky in that I am really not in gaited horse country, so I haven't had people influence me in the old-fashioned ways of riding gaited horses. But the downside is that there aren't tons of gaited horses for sale either, especially in my price range. I would love to live somewhere they are cheap and plentiful!

And I don't have much experience with Walkers. I've ridden a few but never owned one. I've never owned a horse with major pacing issues. (I've only had 3 gaited horses and they were Fox Trotters or crosses). My grey mare, she would often pace when I wanted her to canter, but her go-to gait was still the fox trot. But she had some pacing issues transitioning to the canter. 

My beautiful dapple grey gelding that was the son of the grey mare (QH/MFT cross), did fox trot and would sometimes pace if I asked him to canter and he was getting tired. I think he's strengthened out of that though.......I re-homed him to a neighbor who likes to canter all over the trails and I haven't seen him pace in years. I haven't seen him fox trot recently either, but the neighbor just rides him as a regular horse and doesn't know much about gaited horses. He would fox trot if you held him at just the right speed, but would hard trot if you didn't. So I actually liked the fact that he paced the time or two, because it showed me he inherited the gaited gene from his momma and we had something to work towards. Sadly, I just didn't have the confidence to keep riding him.


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## boatagor (Jun 27, 2017)

trailhorserider said:


> I would call that a sooty palomino. He's gorgeous! Here is a MFT my neighbor owned for a while and she was a similar color, but I think your guy is prettier!
> View attachment 1110293
> 
> 
> ...


Very pretty horse!

I moved from OH to VA a few years ago. I had never seen a walking horse in my life before moving here. Now I see them everywhere, and when I was looking to buy a QH or Appy, I couldn't find any but walkers were a dime a dozen. I haven't seen any MFT around here, and only a few Kentucky/Rocky Mtn horses (would love to try one of them out some day). I will say the price of horses in this area has gone crazy since I bought almost 4 years ago. I was considering selling my guy recently and about died at the price people are asking. 

There are also a lot of speed racking horses. Talk about being intimidated by a gait! Those horses can move out. I wonder if there are long term soundness issues with them, moreso than other gaited horses? I have heard gaited horses in general tend to have more problems because of the way most people ride them and treat them.


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## trailhorserider (Oct 13, 2009)

I've never ridden a speed racking horse, but my neighbor has a MFT that racks. I think it's my favorite gait (at least on that particular horse) because the front end is all animated and the back end just glides like he's on roller skates! 

I personally haven't known of any particular soundness issues except people always talk about horses with inverted postures are more prone to issues. And I think horses need to be "hollow" to rack. But I don't actually know of anyone with an actual racking horse. My neighbor thought her horse was doing a running walk, and after studying the gaits, I am sure it's actually a rack because his neck is stiff with no head-nod. It's a blissful gait to ride. This particular MFT does it when he gets excited so his owner doesn't appreciate it like I do because she sort of considers it bad behavior. (He does it if he gets excited going home, or other horses get him worked up).

I keep hearing some horses like Walkers can have stifle issues. But that it usually goes away if they get ridden more and get stronger in the hind-end. But again, these are just things I hear, I have no actual experience with it.


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## dogpatch (Dec 26, 2017)

trailhorserider said:


> I keep hearing some horses like Walkers can have stifle issues. But that it usually goes away if they get ridden more and get stronger in the hind-end. But again, these are just things I hear, I have no actual experience with it.


I don't have enough experience with the breed to have a well founded opinion, but I sure lean in the same direction as you. Stifles and tripping seem to be big issues in the TWH groups. My vet's tech once called them "The Gumby of Horses". I think they can be too loose in the joints. My mare's shoulders would slip sometimes, that was disconcerting. She could really get tangled up. But she's put most of that behind her with thoughtful riding.


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## farmpony84 (Apr 21, 2008)

I got me one of them thar gaited horses...She is a sweet sweet angel. Sierra is actually my second TWH. The first one was our old Black Horse. He was positively an angel. His heart was made of pure gold. I always say every barn should have at least one.


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## gunslinger (Sep 17, 2011)

Miss Lacy April 2019, Abrams Creek Trail, near Cades Cove, Great Smokey Mountains Tennessee.


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## LilyandPistol (Dec 2, 2014)

boatagor said:


> My frustration is not AT ALL in regards to the gaited horses themselves. My gelding (until recently) has been the easiest, sweetest, most wonderful horse to handle I have ever been around. He is mostly fun to ride and I enjoy every minute I spend with him. He is beautiful, and playful, and curious, and willing to please. I grew up around horses that were hard to catch, hard to handle, hard to ride...my experience with him has been the total opposite (again, recently, but we are going to fix that!).
> 
> My frustration is completely in regards to "gaited horse people" and that may be 100% my geographical location and the types of people I have been involved with. Which is why I am moving him to a barn that's completely different and more centered on growing the relationship with the horse, and learning and growing as a horseperson, no matter the breed or type of saddle I am using.
> 
> ...


I have always thought that if I had a gaited baby I’d hit the trails! I really want a Rocky Mountain horse one day.


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## LilyandPistol (Dec 2, 2014)

farmpony84 said:


> I got me one of them thar gaited horses...She is a sweet sweet angel. Sierra is actually my second TWH. The first one was our old Black Horse. He was positively an angel. His heart was made of pure gold. I always say every barn should have at least one.
> 
> View attachment 1110295
> View attachment 1110296
> View attachment 1110297


What a gorgeous horse 💕


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## LilyandPistol (Dec 2, 2014)

gunslinger said:


> View attachment 1110298
> 
> 
> Miss Lacy April 2019, Abrams Creek Trail, near Cades Cove, Great Smokey Mountains Tennessee.


Oh, those eyes! 💕 What breed?


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## gunslinger (Sep 17, 2011)

Miss Lacy is a Spotted Saddle horse, bread out of pure Tennessee Walking blood......6 Crosses of Mid Night Sun, and 7 Crosses of Merry Boy.


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## RMH (Jul 26, 2016)

The black mare in the fore ground was my wife's TN Walker Cocoa who was more whoa than go. If you stopped kicking she stopped moving. She was the perfect beginner horse. When you did get her motivated she had a running walk which was wonderful to ride and beautiful to watch.

The far horse is my gelding Brownie who is 27 now based on the vet's age estimate when I got him. I call him a Rocky Mountain Horse but am not really sure what he is. He's as laid back as you can get on the ground, so much so that he was the star participant at the 4-H shealth cleaning demonstration. Under saddle he's all business and ready to go. His preferred speed is fast. He mostly does a rack, sometimes a pace when he gets excited, but never a running walk. Several years ago we went swimming in an unfamiliar creek and I walked him off of a ledge and Brownie went under water and I went in up to my shoulders. The next year we went back to the same place and he laid down in the shallows and soaked me. I guess that was my payback.

The two middle horses that my kids are on are just common stock horses.

My grand plan 9 years ago was that we'd ride horses together as a family activity and take horse vacations. My wife never got over her fear so we sold her horse because of some other issues. Cocoa has become a parade horse and is doing well in her new home. My son gave it a good effort but after having two Appaloosas he decided horses weren't for him. My daughter is still into horses but prefers to drive hours to a barrel race to ride her horse for only seconds. Myself, I prefer a short drive and a long ride on the trails.


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## trailhorserider (Oct 13, 2009)

gunslinger said:


> View attachment 1110298
> 
> 
> Miss Lacy April 2019, Abrams Creek Trail, near Cades Cove, Great Smokey Mountains Tennessee.


My dream horse!!!!!!!! Love black, love blue eyes!


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## SwissMiss (Aug 1, 2014)

My Peruvian mare Raya. This is one of my favorite pictures of her. We were at a ride and in the vet check area all those bowls with yummy food were waiting for hungry horses... I think she sampled every single one! And was still ogling each bowl while walking by.


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## LilyandPistol (Dec 2, 2014)

What a pretty girl!


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## shnun (Jan 27, 2021)

I have two gaited horses: a Rocky Mountain Horse mare and a TWH gelding. I'm so fascinated by both of their coloring. She has different shaped dapples - looks like stars or chicken feet in some areas, and then on her legs it looks like ripples in water. And the highlights in her mane.


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## twhvlr (Jul 5, 2017)

Well, I finally got my first ride of the year. It’s been so windy (and it’s been a bone chilling wind) that it really hasn’t been safe to ride. I rode my youngest RMH mare for about 30 minutes this morning . We had a few snorts and she had to look twice at a few things but no problems. She moved out so nicely. It was a wonderful glide ride!


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## twhvlr (Jul 5, 2017)

Here are pictures ( hoping that I did this correctly) of my TWH geldings. The first one is the baby. He turns 2 on June 30th. The 2nd one turns 3 this year and I will begin riding him soon. The picture is from last summer.


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## riderforever (Feb 28, 2021)

I am sorry, this is just a question that popped into my mind when l saw this post. 
Is a standardbred a gaiter horse?
Maresy is my 20 year old beloved horse and she paces-l love riding a pace! Just wondering if that makes her a gaited horse? Thank you


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## trailhorserider (Oct 13, 2009)

riderforever said:


> I am sorry, this is just a question that popped into my mind when l saw this post.
> Is a standardbred a gaiter horse?
> Maresy is my 20 year old beloved horse and she paces-l love riding a pace! Just wondering if that makes her a gaited horse? Thank you


I'll start by saying I'm not an expert, but.......I would consider Standardbreds gaited! Not only do they pace (which IS an extra gait), it seems I've heard some of them can be trained as Racking Horses.


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## riderforever (Feb 28, 2021)

trailhorserider said:


> I'll start by saying I'm not an expert, but.......I would consider Standardbreds gaited! Not only do they pace (which IS an extra gait), it seems I've heard some of them can be trained as Racking Horses.


Thanks 😊


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