Gaited maybe?

There was a horse that came to the camp I work at a year or two ago and after reading more about gaited breeds I've kinda started wondering if he was gaited.

The only time he displayed what I'm thinking might have been gaiting was when I was riding him by myself in the forest so there wasn't any one else around to tell me whether he was gaiting so I'll try to describe what it felt like...
we were trotting along and I wanted him to canter so I said "canter' because he wasn't responding to my leg cues and he immediately lurched into something that was fast like a canter and extremely smooth. It wasn't like the normal rocking motion of the canter, it was just like I was going in a level line straight along. Or like when you're riding in a car, going fast. He only did whatever gait that was twice during the summer, the rest of the time he only walked and he did trot some.

He was a very very calm good natured old guy. He also had HUGE feet for his size, they were the same size as the draft cross we had that year and he was only around 15 hh while the draft was at least 17hh.

I do have a few pictures of him. He was older and pretty skinny so excuse how thin he looks, we did our best to get him to a good weight and in these pictures he's at a way better weight than he was when we acquired him.

Here's a head shot:



Please excuse my horrible bareback riding skillz. That picture was taken the second time I ever rode bareback. I'm pretty sure we were walking in this picture but maybe not (it's been a long time)?



He kind of looks like he might have TWH in him to me just because of his head but I'm no expert...

It could have been a TWH with a rusty gait--meaning he throws one in once in a while just to surprise you because he isn't very good at it. One of our's dose that *rolls eyes* Very annoying. How long did he hold it? Was he particularily collected? Dose he trot or pace more than the other?

Well, looking at the first picture he's got that typical narrow Walking Horse chest --- even though he is thin in that picture, his chest is still typically "Walking Horse narrow".

The the pic of you riding him, he almost looks to be Saddlebred and that would explain the something different that you got him in when you were cuing him to canter.

If he is five-gaited Saddlebred, he no doubt was a show horse in another life and your cue was "spot-on" for him to go into another intermediate gait.

If he is a Tennessee Walker, the fact that he is an elder and would rather trot than gait, could mean a couple things:

1. His skeletal structure is out of whack and when that happens it is easier for a horse to get away from the discomfort by trotting than gaiting. This could have been going on for years and trotting has now become a learned habit.

2. He could have been a TWH that had diffculty holding his intermediate gait for a number of reasons (unknowledeable riders included in his past) and people gave up on him and just let him trot.

That all being said, I am leaning toward 5-gaited Saddlebred because of that pretty head and stature that just seems to me to be ASB

I could be totally wrong and that sure wouldn't be the first time

Heehee he was a cutey pie. Sadly though the winter after that summer he evidently just laid down and died. =(
I don't know anything about his past since he was owned by a horse camp outfitter who picked him up from an auction. The only thing they told me about him (when they were trying to convince me that he was the best horse ever) was that once, on a trail ride, his owner had had too much to drink and needed to pee really bad but the trail was too narrow to actually get off so she ended up somehow hanging off his leg peeing and he had no issue. He had been his previous owners trail horse but who knows how long or short of a time she had had him.

It seems unlikely to me that he was a 5-gaited Saddlebred just because he was super super calm and absolutely bomb proof and from what I've heard about what happens to a 5-gaited Saddlebred to make them be animated, I'm not sure how he would have ended up so calm after that. But who knows, he for sure wasn't a Quarter horse, he was too dainty yet solid for that, I think atleast.

He did trot (I'm not positive but his trot felt "normal" and I'd figure a pace would feel different), I was the only person who actually had him go faster than a walk, I have no idea if he had major knee action or anything, which might have helped decipher his breed. He did not have a very smooth trot. It wasn't bouncy but it wasn't really smooth either. I could sit it easily but I wouldn't want to do that all day. Haha

When I did get him to gait we were just riding down the trail so he had his head, but I probably had direct contact with the bit (it was a tom thumb, before I knew how bad they are.) He held it for at least 40-50 feet, then we had to turn and I didn't want him to try to do whatever he was doing around such a tight curve, so I brought him down to a trot. After we turned he picked it back up again very easily for another 60ish feet.