Conforming to the gaited crowd- for some reason it annoys me!

I suspect that the gaited horse actually works harder. The rider of the trotter works harder though.

It depends, a naturally gaited walker isn't working hard at all so it is easier than a trotting horse I suspect. Walkers that have to be trained to walk are working so in that case I suspect they work harder than a horse that is trotting. If in shape, a walker can keep it up all day long just like most in shape non gaited horses can trot all day long. The real difference is how the rider feels at the end of that day and there a gaited horse really has the edge.

FYI, flat walk and running walk are exactly the same gait difference is in speed.

Both horses have to move their mass at the same speed. That's going to take the same energy output. Since the trot is a natural gait, I'm going to say that both types of horses are working just as hard.


If you know how to post and your horse has impulsion, posting takes little effort. The motion of the saddle does most of the work for you. Besides, I like the fact that posting is exercise.

It tickles me to hear all of the non gaited say their horse can not walk as fast as the gaited horses. That is just plain not true. Any horse can be taught to walk faster, and yes, just as fast as the gaited. The doggie walk, QH crawl, is because that is what they have been taught. They can also be taught to walk out at the walking speed of gaited horses.

If your riding with gaited folks that gait out, then your non gaited need to be taught a trot, or better yet, a slow canter, that will keep pace with the gaited horses.

We rode Arabs for years and never had any problem matching the speeds of the gaited horses. The folks that dally along and make others wait, need to teach their horses gaits that will match the speeds of the horses they are riding with.

+1

It sounds like a lot of people are just plumb afraid of speed.

I don't know if it's afraid of speed as much as it is not wanting to train for something different.

I know a lot of people who w/t/c in the arena but absolutely refuse to go faster on a trail. Basically, once they leave their comfort zone it's to scary to do anything more than a walk. In their defense, a lot of them have been injured while trail riding due to green rider/green horse wrecks.

Their loss.......

I think you're probably right about that.

Our TWHs can adjust their walk to go the same as what would be considered a non-gaited horse's "working walk."

Just moving along, a slight "bob" to the head, but not burning it up by any stretch of the imagination. It's an alert, responsive, controlled, forward-moving walk. . .the kind where your horse is ready to move into a trot or canter without having to be woken up first.

The problem is that many people I've run into on the trail seem to think the only "walk" their horse can or should do is that death-march speed and they never ask for anything more. Maybe they never learned how to make adjustments, to get their horse to "walk out" a little bit more and take a bigger stride. I really don't know.

I haven't always ridden gaited horses. But even on non-gaited horses, the sleep-walk is just. . .well. . .boring. Really slow, and really boring. That's the kind of walk I might do if I was cooling a horse out after working it in an arena. But on a trail ride, I'd expect at least a working-walk speed.

Jeebuz people. My friend has two TWH and I have a Paint. He keeps up with both of them (unless they get giddy) quite well. Granted he has a bit of a faster walk than most trail horses, but that isn't the point. The point is - gaited horses are perfectly capable of walking. Therefore, non-gaited horses can usually keep up unless they're trained to take the trail at a slower speed, or just can't/won't walk faster.

I also wish to state that I completely agree with the rider needing to train his/her horse to not have a meltdown just because someone is trotting up behind 'em. I'm working on that with my boy now, and we've progressed pretty well. He went from having a one-horse-rodeo to head tossing and side stepping at best... unless he's feeling fresh.