I thought "peanut rollers" were a thing of the past

I thought the WP horses known as peanut rollers were a thing of the past but I guess I was wrong. I came across this vid and just felt sooo sorry for this poor horse. That is completely not a natural gait and what amazes me is that he is winning shows. The poor thing just looks so lethargic like he has not slept in weeks. :"(

I think the horse isnt that bad. In my personal opinion he needs to be pushed out more to be in true gaits. His cadence is off a bit at the jog and he's 4-beating at the lope. The gaits look artificial but I like the actual horse.
I'm going to the Just For Pleasure show in a couple weeks to kinda see where western pleasure was this year and plan on taking some vids. I'm really hoping that I see more true gaits then stuff like this. I'll just have to wait and see.

Anyway...take a look at this. It was the pleasure horse that won the Bayer select world. I thought the horse was an absolutely beautiful mover.

Just wanted to ask what a peanut roller is? Sorry if its a dumb question :( but I don't ride western and I've never heard of the term. Thanks

Its basically a fad that the western pleasure industry went through when the ideal pleasure horse was put to extremes. "Peanut roller" is a name given to the horses that exhibited an abnormally low head carriage(ears far below the withers) and seemed lethargic in its movements. When 4 beating,being over canted on the rail, and executing cripplingly slow gaits were considered the "ideal".

The horse only needs to be pushed up a little bit to get him to engage more. He is not four-beating, but his hind end is not driving as it should.

When this horse has a little more drive, his cadence will improve, his head will come up and he will present a much prettier picture. Sometimes it's all in the way the horse is ridden.

[quote=GottaRide;197357]The horse only needs to be pushed up a little bit to get him to engage more. He is not four-beating, but his hind end is not driving as it should.
Quote]

Its not four beating? I was taught that if a horse's outside legs (at the lope of course) don't hit the ground at about the same time its four-beating. As the outside legs are supposed to be 1 beat.

The first one looks broken. I hate that peanut roller gait. The second one looks comfy.....

How are the outside legs supposed to hit at the same time? That'd be a pretty funny looking gait.

The outside hind and inside front are supposed to hit at the same time.

The lope goes-
Inside Hind
Outside Hind+Inside Front
Outside Front

Actually it's outside hind, inside back +outside front, then inside front. You just described the wrong lead.


I have to saw, I watched both videos and didn't see that much difference. Both looked short strided and lethargic to me...

...Shows how much I know! For some reason I was thinking only one foot hit the ground at a time... or is that at a gallop? I don't know.....

The same legs could hit the ground at the same time... side and side or opposite fronts...but that would be a gaited horse....