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flat walk vs running walk

10K views 13 replies 11 participants last post by  toosexy4myspotz 
#1 ·
Watching this: Gaits Video

And I am having a hard time seeing the difference between the running walk and the flat walk other than speed and it looks like the back legs reach a little further forward. Is there one?
 
#7 ·
I'd never dream of making my Tennessee Walker a performance walker. Do you realize what pain most of those performance walkers go through to make them lift their hooves so ridiculously high? It leaves some of them crippled even.
This isnt true. Yes some walkers are sored, but its not all of them. There is abuse in any of the diciplines.....the worst Ive seen ( personally) are just trail riders. Does that make trail horses bad? Does that mean all trail riders are abusive? NO.
Please dont generalize like that. It doesnt make you look very intelligent.
 
#12 ·
From somebody who's owned several TWH crosses, 1 TWH and 2 Mountain Horses, the difference is flat (natural, trail-riding and ground covering gait), what you are calling, "Running Walk," is a show ring movement where the horse is expected to overstep the hoofprints of the front feet with the back feet, while snapping the front legs up, very much like a Hackney. TWH's naturally drop their hindquarters and elevate the front when they are moving at a running walk (or amble), but in the show ring they reward an exaggerated movement of it. Walkers are fussy--they get tired of ring work and like to perform better on an open outdoor stretch.
There is more than one way to achieve this. I personally prefer going to the dressage world to look for solutions. Work over poles or cavaletti force ANY horse to pick up his feet. Exercises such as walking to a cavaletti then cueing for a lope as he crosses over it at the 18" setting creates a good lift without using chains around the fetlocks, or other such devices. Pretty much ANY exercise that creates collection will improve the overall performance of your TWH.
 
#14 · (Edited)
As for the flat walk verses running walk. Flat walk like someone stated wary is a good ground covering gait. It allows trail rides to be able to cover a lot more ground in a shorter amount of time. The running gait is fancier gait. It is used a lot in the show ring. Many walkers carry this trait but it's hard to bring out in some of them because it takes good training and a lot of persistence. Some just do it naturally. The running walk too can cover more ground quicker than a regular walk. We ride with a lot of qh people becomes challenging in the mountains because a walker will climb a steep hillside in half the time of most qh but that all comes down to that elongated stride they have and the ability to go at this pace all day, if conditioned properly. I just got into walking horses two years ago and boy do I love it!!!


My app also covers ground quickly and can keep up with the walkers but at the end of the day I can't move because of the agonizing back pain and I'm only twenty three years old. They make a huge difference with the flat/running walk
 
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