Why Trot a Gaited Horse  

Thanks for sharing your experience about training the Tennessee Walking Horse gaits on cue. Also, a great point about driving for the engagement of the hindquarters.

Great question, especially for the gaited horse. Yes, developing a clear and consistent cue for each gait is important. The gaited horses I ride have a natural head nod when they gait (flat walk or fox trot). My cue is with my lower legs squeezing and releasing at the girth with a slight motion of my pelvis to move forward and then my arms and hands being relaxed from the shoulders and elbows follow the natural head and neck motion the horse offers. In trot, the horse's head and neck remain stationary, so my cues for the gaited horses I ride for trot are using the lower legs to squeeze and release, a slight motion with my pelvis to move forward and my upper body posture remains tall and my hands and arms discourage a head nod as I say, "trot-trot". For canter to the right lead, I bring my left leg slightly behind the girth and (release as the horse takes the canter) with a slight motion of my pelvis to move forward and then my arms and hands being relaxed from the shoulders and elbows to follow the natural head and neck motion the horse offers as I say, "canter". (Then the same for the left lead canter where the right leg is applied slightly behind the girth with the same aids as right lead canter. Thanks for asking! I hope this helps.

Having a multi-gaited horse requires a horse that is both sensitive and receptive to subtle changes in your cues. It takes a lot of riding and a skilled rider to keep the cue sets clean, so that the horse can understand what you are asking. One reason your riding instructor is constantly working on a good seat in balance with your horse and quiet hands that aren't used for your balance is to allow for clean cues and good transitions. If you are flopping all over the horses back and constantly dinging on the reins the horse starts to ignore your random movements. If you are well seated, in rhythm and quiet ... even a shift in your pelvis can be a movement cue for your horse. That said, for our horse Treasure, the canter cue was the same as any other horse - nose tipped slightly to rail and outside heel tap. Dog walk, flat walk and running walk are all basically the same footfalls with varying amounts of speed and collection. (adjusted via pelvis shifts, leg contact and quiet gathering via closing fingers on the reins) Dog walk is a very extended yet relaxed movement. Collecting that results in a flat walk. Lifting the hands slightly and more leg presses to drive collection and speed results in the running walk gait. The hard ones for a walking horse that is naturally laterally gaited are the diagonal trot and the fox trot. For my boy I used heel pokes instead of leg pressure (via my calf) to indicate diagonal trot. He did this gait pretty free moving. When I put collection on the trot and added a bit more drive he would fox trot.

Diane Reiser Thank you for the question. I rise from the saddle when the horse’s outside fore leg moves forward. This is known as posting on the correct diagonal. Does that help?

Hi April, Thanks for writing. My opinion is to establish the gait first under saddle, the trot on a lunge line, especially if you have a pacy horse. I use the trot to add another gait on cue after I've established the smooth gaits and to help establish more engagement in the other gaits, or if I have a very lateral pacey horse, the trot will help break up the lateral footfall for the canter. That's just my approach, other's may have a different approach. Best of luck and keep in touch. I'd love to hear how it is going!

April, I used to train a lot of gaited horses. I agree that training the diagonal trot is best done on the longe line or in a round pen. The horse will tend to move better and with less of a hallowed out back without carrying weight. Some things I have found that will be beneficial are teaching the horse to gait smoothly are #1 RELAX and #2 FLEX. So many of our gaited horses are like riding a post. They lack lateral flexation. You want the horse to be able to circle their body around your leg smoothly both directions. Often these horses are so stiff just getting them to reach their nose back horizontally across their own body is difficult. I start these horses by just standing beside them at a point just behind their withers and asking them to flex their neck back towards me without moving their body. Do it equally from both sides. Once you have them with some flexation you work on relaxation while riding them. Concentrate on getting them to step out freely. You want to see and feel a LOT of movement in spine and even in their ears. When the are walking out truly relaxed their ears will flop in rhythm to their stride. Next start working on "tucking in" that motion. You want to drive the horse forward into the bit with your legs, while keeping your hands soft and following the horses natural motion. When the horse is "engaged" the hindquarters will be under the horse, the flop will disappear. The horse will feel like they are working more "up". Work on those transitions. Relaxing out to floppy and tucking in to engage the hindquarters. When you can transition smoothly in and out, then add circles to the routine. Extend and relax (feel the flop), tuck in and engage and then WHILE engaged turn to the inside of the arena and circle back until you are once again on the rail moving in the original direction. Work on keeping the rhythm consistent and smooth and the circles as ROUND and smooth as possible. These exercises will really help your horse gait properly. Once you have them able to do these things comfortably putting them in the Amble or a Running Walk or Fox Trot (depending on breed) is just a matter of pressing on with the speed and "lift" from that smooth "engaged" walk.

Have you watched this video on the Naturally Gaited Horse channel: Breaking Pace & Cross Canter in the Gaited Horse using Trot & Ground Rails This might help answer your question. If not, visit www.NaturallyGaited.com and send me an email and I will get back to you. Thank you for your question.