Wednesday, August 13, 2008

What Gait / Draumur

What gait is this Icelandic Horse doing in the "tolt" section:

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah ; ) that was pretty much the worst tolt we've ever gotten -- he's a natural tolter, but he had a new farrier/shoes the day before and was having some trouble figuring out what he wanted to do.

But he *really* wanted to canter that day. We'd been practicing canter departs over the previous two weeks (with a little clicker training) and he went from complaining about cantering to suddenly wanting to do nothing else. I was so delighted to have a nice canter that I'd been taking getting a clean tolt for granted.

A couple days later his tolt seemed to settle back to normal. Boy do I love this horse.

We have a "deal" -- he'll tolerate working on the track (including a couple of shows) if 75% of the time we do trails, the beach, or clicker training in-hand. Made a huge difference in his attitude *on* the track that he spends most of his time *off* it.

IceRyder said...

It's a fox trot and a nice one! Fox trot is a very good intermediate gait and easy on the horses; always a good thing to have!

He looks like a nice horse, palomino like my filly. Always a good color :-).

Would love to see more videos of him and his natural gaits!

Judy

Wanda said...

I like the look of this horse too. If he is a natural tolter, and if he can perform a nice fox trot like that - it will keep his back healthier over the course of his life. Yes, I'd like to see more of him.

Anonymous said...

Wow thanks so much for doing the slo-mo version. I'm using iMovie 08 and Apple removed the option for doing that : (

But having looked at it, I now don't understand what makes it a fox trot? I'm counting the beats in slow motion and they are pretty evenly spaced l-l-r-r, despite the hopping. I don't have a lot of knowledge about the other gaits, though--so I'm still figuring it out...but I had always thought fox trot was a "trotty" version of a tolt--closer to a 2-beat trot--more diagonal.

So, I guess I'm trying to understand what makes it a fox trot. It definitely looks like he rolls several times--ready to "jump" into a canter, but when he's tolting the footfalls still look fairly even.

I'm still a beginner, though... I've been riding with a bit and saddle for a year. (Draumur is happy to do this gait in just a halter, but I can't get him to lengthen his topline as much in the halter and the snaffle has been helping with that).

IceRyder said...

"I'm trying to understand what makes it a fox trot."

If it was a tolt, his laterals would be lifting off at the same time. But his diagonals are closer in time than the laterals which makes it a diagonal gait.

Here is one Icelandic Horse doing a fox trot:

http://gaited-horse.blogspot.com/2008/08/what-gait-icelandic-horse.html

and more, including stills here:

http://iceryder.net/gaitstella.html

"I can't get him to lengthen his topline as much in the halter and the snaffle has been helping with that"

What are you trying to do by lengthening his topline? Could you get a video of it?

Thanks!

Judy

IceRyder said...

"I had always thought fox trot was a "trotty" version of a tolt--closer to a 2-beat trot--more diagonal."

The fox trot is not a trotty version of the tolt. Tolt is one-foot / two-foot support, so a trotty tolt would be a slightly diagonal version of a tolt, different than a fox trot which is a two-foot / three-foot support gait, with timing of 1--2-3--4.

It takes a while to get a feel for the gaits and to be able to recognize them.

Judy

Wanda said...

Hi Kathy, do you have a copy of Lee Ziegler's book "Easy Gaited Horses"? I found it really helpful when I was(still am) studying the foot falls of various gaits.

His fox trot looks smooth...

Wanda

IceRyder said...

Lee's book, good idea:

Easy-Gaited Horses by Lee Ziegler

Judy