On 6/19/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > i should also point out a linguistic factoid i've mentioned here before: > icelandic speakers call all the soft gaits "tolt". not just the saddle > rack. in the video i sent, all of that soft gait was what icelanders in > ordinary speech call "tolting"; lacking youtube and freeze-framing, > their tradition uses the term more broadly than this list does. i have > never heard an icelander tell me "your horse isn't tolting, he's > fox-trotting" or whatever. that's the kind of terminology this list > uses and (in my experience of about half a dozen different icelandic > speakers) icelanders just don't. they say "okay, can you feel his nice > tolt?" and off we go. >
This doesnt fly with me anymore. When I first started being around icey people I figured out really quickly that they called everything tolt, and thats ok with me it really is... but you can't have it both ways. You can't say "oh they call everything tolt" on one hand, and then on the other say the breed has five distinct signature gaits. And then have breeders who should know everything there is to know about the horses they breed, not even recognize the gait their horses do. And then argue the leg off the lamb of god saying icelandics dont ever foxtrot or runningwalk they only tolt. I personally cant wait for the day when everyone will finally admit all gaited horses can do any and all gaits, regardless of breed specifics. I mean, the only reason the RHBAA started in the first place is because people owned walking horses that wouldnt walk, they would only rack so they couldnt show them. I personally own: 1. a registered racking horse that does a gorgeous runningwalk 2. A registered walking horse that racks only 3. an icelandic that foxtrots 4. a registered walking horse that does every gait there is except speed rack/flying pace 5. an icelandic that foxwalks and i have had people on icelandic horse groups scoff, scorn, and openly make fun of me for saying so. because only "tolt" exists you see. problem is, 99% of icey owners, even the experts, especially the experts, dont even know what a tolt is and thats sad! it really is. You an say what you want about these evil corrupt terrible redneck tennessee gaited horse show people but i will tell you one dang thing they know a gait when they see it! not only that they know how to alter it in several ingenius evil effective ways. most icelandic people just go oh, that a trotty tolt or oh thats a skeith tolt or oh thats a piggy pace. they need to get it right, at least before they start trying to alter it mechanically. How embarassing is that?! I was chatting with a man who has trained several WGC walking horses, has taken many to WGC of his own, just standing there beside him at an expo, I wanted to ask him a question. People were riding by on their gaited horses to exercise them before the breed demos. I asked, what gait when a horse went buy because i recognized it as a stepping pace and it was a fancy rigged up big lick horse, i wanted to see what he would say. "thats a stepping pace, " he said, "needs more weight on the front." So I started asking about every horse that went by. "hard pace," he would say. "saddle rack, some call it a daisy cutter, thats the right gait for that breed," it was a RMSH. He knew every single gait there was. and the breeds that are known to do them. and I'm sorry but I EXPECT that of the show people in every breed., NO LESS. I just do. I expect it of breeders and people who train and people who sell. ignorance on those levels is simply unconscionable. open your freakin eyeballs!! Question authority, always question authority, especially these litttle private breed queen and kingdoms. if you want to play on a world class level with the big dogs you should at least be as in tune with gait mechanics as the average ignorant redneck tennesean/alabamian. I would NEVER 1. buy. 2. take lessons from. 3. take riding advice from ANY icelandic "expert" who cannot tell one gait from another. at the alabama state horse fair ma few years ago, there was an icey demo. The icelandics were cool but only two gaited cleanly and those two would break it frequently, one even stopping in the middle of the flying pace to crow hop a little cause the rider wanted him to stop hard pacing. Then they have the "Alabama State Horse", a racking horse, come out, the Alabama State Speed Racking Champion of that year, they dimmed the lights, put a huge spotlight on him and a man rides out about 30 mph at a full blown speed rack, just lapping, smooth as silk, clean and clear a gait as could be, no boots, no big shoes,. carrying an american flag and sitting as effortless as if he is at home in his chair watching tv and drinking a beer. I think some icelandic gait experts need to quit putting themselves above these low class american rednecks. and thinking themselves so far above them, so continental and european., because 1. they are just as abusive to horses while knowing a lot less. TONS less. you gotta ways to go before you impress me, sorry. Janice -- yipie tie yie yo
