Re: [IceHorses] Asking for Gait
> > For a pacey horse that you would like to have fox trot, you would do > > something different than asking the square horse to fox trot, and also > > different than asking the naturally gaited fox trotter to fox trot. > > > > What do you do? Or does it depend on the horse. Yes, it depends on the horse and his natural gait orientation. Say with the pacey horse, you'd want to keep your hands lower, be a little more forward in your seat. Which reminds me, I was working with two ladies a while ago, both riding the same horse. The first one, I asked her to sit up more to get the horse to saddle rack. When the next lady got on the horse, I had to ask her to sit down lower to get the horse to saddle rack. The first lady was confused and asked why I had told her to sit up and was telling the second gal to sit down. It was because of the rider's orientation. The first rider was of the western discipline, and the second rider was a long-time hunter jumper. Problem was not with the horse, he could saddle rack with no problem. It was the rider and the rider's seat that needed adjustment to the horse! Judy http://iceryder.net http://clickryder.com
Re: [IceHorses] Asking for Gait
On Wed, Apr 16, 2008 at 5:59 PM, Judy Ryder <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > For a pacey horse that you would like to have fox trot, you would do > something different than asking the square horse to fox trot, and also > different than asking the naturally gaited fox trotter to fox trot. > What do you do? Or does it depend on the horse. V
Re: [IceHorses] Asking for Gait
>>> For a pacey horse that you would like to have fox trot, you would do >>> something different than asking the square horse to fox trot, and also >>> different than asking the naturally gaited fox trotter to fox trot. Exactly. When we start the young horses under saddle, we let them pick the next gait up from walk. If that's foxtrot, fine. If it's running walk or flat walk, fine. If it's saddle rack, fine. If it's trot, fine too - although we haven't started one to pick trot lately - can't remember starting an Icelandic who didn't offer one of the soft gaits from the get go, but we've been focusing on breeding horses. If the young horse were not to have much of a range of gait in his repertoire, that's fine too...if other gaits come later, that's just icing. What we do when we let the horse pics his choice of gait, we just sit quietly, trying to be balanced and go with his motion, basically staying out of his way. When you do that, and you're pretty sure your saddle fits as well as possible, and you're pretty sure you're using a suitable mild bit, or no bit, you've taken care of the horse's teeth, and his hoofs are trimmed in balance, you can pretty much relax and let the horse show you what he's naturally got. It really takes the mystery out of "gait training." No "special" training required. :) I've also learned to take a stab at conformation analysis as taught by Lee Ziegler and Liz Graves, and Liz has since marked up and analyzed most of my horses. Not surprisingly, what Liz saw in their conformations was always very similar to what we'd actually seen the horses do - some of the horses have ranges of gaits so the conformation analysis is never 100% precise, but she's always been very much in the range we've seen...and she's marked them all before seeing them ridden. Karen Thomas, NC
Re: [IceHorses] Asking for Gait
> Do you ask for gait the same way with all your horses? There are some similarities in how to ask for gait, and some differences. For a pacey horse that you would like to have fox trot, you would do something different than asking the square horse to fox trot, and also different than asking the naturally gaited fox trotter to fox trot. It depends on the horse's "gaitedness", conformation, tendencies, education, and training. Even the size of the rider will impact the horse and how he responds gait-wise to requests. Judy http://iceryder.net
