Horse gait question (Pictures added)

[Wynette]

When I read your decription in your first post, I immedaitely thought "Indian Shuffle" like someone else. I wonder if he's got any App in him? Anyway, he's cute!

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

Interesting! I have never heard of the indian shuffle. What type of gait is this? I'm goign to see if I can find a video on youtube.

 

[katrinag]

Have you have someone come look at his feet. He has long toes and high heels. This "might" be some cause to his gait. His hoofs and legs could be sore.

 

[joletabey]

The first picture of that pretty sorrel reminded me of the old Leo QH lines. They were great athletes, cat quick on their feet. Before I converted to Arabs, I had QH, and they could do a quick, extended walk. Wish I could see your boy move.
Any idea of his breeding? Lots of Apps out there without any spots, too.
Beth

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

Have you have someone come look at his feet. He has long toes and high heels. This "might" be some cause to his gait. His hoofs and legs could be sore.

Yeah, his feet needed some work when we bought him. Most of those pictures are from last year and right after we bought him. For some reason I don't have too many updated photos uploaded of him. We have a corrective farrier for our older guy and he is wonderful. He shoes both the horses, and he's been working to get his feet nice and correct, but it has been slow going. Unfortunately with the area I live in and the riding we do, we have to keep their hooves shoed and they tend to grow out quickly. Typically we try to have them shoed and trimmed up every 6-8 weeks, but depending on the time of year and how much riding we are doing, they may go a little longer than that. He doesn't show any lameness in any of his feet, so I don't think he is sore. I did have a friend who has a lot of horse experience come look at him and I showed her this gait. She thought it was neat! I'm sure she would have said something if she was concerned that he was in pain.

Anyways, our farrier is quite fond of Stetson's feet. He says they are nice and strong and with regular shoe-ing/trimming he should not have any lameness issues. That was one of the things we made sure of when looking at him. I had seen too many QHs with tiny tiny feet before finding stetson!

Beth,
We aren't really sure of anything with this guy. All we know if that he was supposedly bought from an auction on the Texas/Mexico border and was probably used as a Mexican ranch horse. He has a brand, but I couldn't find too much info on that either. I'll have to put a pic up of that. When we first bought him the people told us he was probably QH, but could have anything mixed in. Its really hard to tell!

He's a pretty good mover, but we've been so busy working on other stuff that we haven't had time to work on his cutting/reining skills. He does great rollbacks and sliding stops. I think he has some excellent potential, but we are starting slow and working on his respect issues. He has no sense of personal space.

Next time my dad takes him out for a ride, I will try to video him.​

 

[ducks4you]

LUCKY YOU!! You bought yourself a gaited horse.

Notice:
--the slightly roached back
--the squared-off face (typical of TW-Tennessee Walker)--often a regular halter won't fit!!
--no over-muscled forearm or hindquarters, so he's NOT a Quarter - Horse

I own a Kentucky Mountain Horse mare. She rides like a TW And she could be double-registered. (Write me if you want more on this.)

I have owned several TW's and a couple of 1/2 TW's. (MOST of the horses I've had over the years have NOT been gaited.) They naturally do a "running walk, instead of trot. BEWARE, many gaited horses have 6 gaits: Walk, Running Walk (or eq.), Canter,
Trot, Pace, "Broken Washing Machine."

The gait is inherited and dominant. Any purists out there will tell you that the foot fall differs amongst gaited breeds, BUT they are all comfy to ride and generally good-natured.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! ENJOY!!!!

 

[4hooves&featheredfriends]

I have a QH X that I purchased 3 years ago, as we started to work her we realized that she had this interesting gait only expressed when her head was in a high carriage.

We always suspected she had Morgan in her - and it turns out that their were/are gaited morgans. Depending upon where you are there may have been a gaited influence of another breed.

Here is my girl;

 

[CountryMom]

Quote:
His head is that typical of a working cow quarter horse lines found here in Texas. I suspect he is mainly QH as most of their blood comes from the discarded ranch horses around here. He actually reminds me a lot of the Leo lines in the head. His body build is nothing like a Paso in the rear as his butt doesn't have that rounded shape. May even have some Tivio lines in there with his build.

The youtube clip I saw a few years ago had a young man on a horse whipping him in the belly and legs getting him to pick up his feet. It progressed on to sucking in his face with what appeared to be a big shank bit and more whipping as they begin to move out of a confined stall. My link doesn't work anymore for it. I believe it's title was teaching to gait or something along those lines. I figured it wouldn't stay on the internet as it was pretty cruel.

I have a mare that is a Tivio/Sugar Bars/Par Three bloodline that has that box of a head and just plain not pretty. At least this gelding has somewhat of a nice face on him.

 

[ducks4you]

YUCK!! The shipping sounds like what they used to do for collected gaits between the pillars in the Spanish School of Riding during the 17th Century!!! They used to wear out whips and the groom would hand them new ones to break!!!


I don't think anybody does this anymore, unless they are behind closed doors.

It is very true that Gaited horses are more comfortable when they are shod right. My gaited mare (barefoot) was very happy to give me a nice running walk and canter last night when I rode her...on a low port...on a slack rein.

You never know what genetics are in many horses because of the mixes in so many breeds.

Please CountryMom, PM about your QH'S!!

I've been out of the loop for bloodlines for awhile. Also, I'm horse-shopping.

 

[Equest94]

I agree with others in saying he doesn't look so Quarter Horsey...

We too have ranch bred QHs (cutters. reiners, and reined cow horses) and all but one look like the standard AQH. The one, Luke (reiner), has the same face and neck as your guy, he's a bit slimmer structured then the rest of our herd, but his body still has the typical QH muscling features (especially in the hind-end) just not as buff as the others... Your guy doesn't look to have a very Quarter Horse type body either... I'm not saying he's not, he very well could be, just not up to the "breed standards." There are other factors that can be played into his appearance such as:

- how old is he?
- how long did you have him for?/how long was he in work for?/what kind of work does he do?/how fit would you say he is?
- any lameness issues/stiffness - chiropractic work needed?


I have never heard of ranchers teaching their horse to do a running walk... it's just not a natural gait of stock horse breeds and actually, the 'western jog' is suppose to be smooth enough for riders to sit to it all day, therefore there shouldn't be a need to teach the horse a different gait.


My guesses are:
Standardbred, Fox Trotter, or QH mix with one of the others mentioned....


He's a very cute looking horse, whatever he is!

(and the filly is adorable too!

)