The Scoop on Gaited Horses

     If you're like most of the horse world, or the non-horse world for that matter, you have no clue what a gaited horse is. You may have seen the word  on an advertisement or in a magazine, but you didn't really know what it meant. Since only a very few breeds are capable of doing it, it' only natural that so many people don't know what it is. So what is a gaited horse? Technically, a gait is anyway that a horse moves it's feet, but when people use the term "gaited" horse refers to any 4 beat gait that the horse does. This means that each foot touches the ground at a different time. Since there is no moment where a foot isn't on the ground this movement tends to be much smoother than 2 beat gaits such as the trot (what most people are used to) and the pace (a gait where both legs on one side are hitting the ground at the same time). 

     Now, while any pattern of the feet hitting the ground in a 4 beat motion is considered a gait, the smoothest of all gaits is called the amble. The amble -and of course the gait the Rocky Mountain Horses are known for- is where each foot hits the ground in a perfectly even count. To the untrained eye, this gait simply looks like the horse is walking super fast, but it is actually a movement of it's own. The video below is a wonderful example of what a gait on a Rocky should look like. This is a slow gait, but they can go much faster. Notice how the rider's head does not move up or down at all as she is riding. The foot fall is (and should be) back left, front left, back right, front right. My trick to tell if a horse is gaiting is to stare at the back left leg, and from there you should notice that the left front hits next, and the right side follows suit. 

     There are several breeds of gaited horses, and all have different gaits. The most common in Kentucky are Tennessee Walkers, Kentucky Mountains, Rocky Mountains, Spotted Mountains, and Saddlebreds. Although Standardbreds do pace, I don't consider them a true gaited horse because many cannot be trained to do a 4 beat gait. In my opinion, Rockies are the smoothest horses out there. However, I've ridden several very smooth Tennessee Walking Horses, Pasos, and a variety of grade horses and ponies, so breed isn't everything. Hope I've opened your eyes to the wonderful world of gaited horses! I normally say "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is" but not in the gaited world!