The Old Folks Home

[The Yakima Kid]

I miss my Mustang mare Desert Rose. She was gaited though I never figured out exactly what lateral gait it was. It was 4 beat so it wasn't a pace but it was like I had extensions on my legs and was walking with really big steps. You let you legs swing like you are walking just behind her shoulders as the went forward and back. One day we had some dogs rush us on the road. She hates dogs. She took me up an embankment that I would have had to grab the sapling trees to pull myself up if I was walking. One of the dogs had been up on the embankment and there was NO WAY she was going to let him keep the high ground on her. I just gave her the rein and flattened myself to her neck.

Could have been a full out fast singlefoot AKA rack or a running walk. Fox trot is diagonal.

What people generally don't realize is that ranchers used to turn out the kind of horses they wanted into the broomtail herds, and would should the broomtail stallions and put out a Morgan, or a Standardbred, or a pudding foot, or a Quarter Horse stud to get the ball rolling.

In parts of the western mountains, especially in eastern Oregon, you still see the occasional "pudding foot." A big, strong, rangy horse with some definite draft ancestry visible in the feathers and legginess, and a strong tendency to being rawboned. They are tough, and if I could find one, I'd buy it.

 

[The Yakima Kid]

a four beat gait is the same pattern as a walk. In Saddle breds that would be called Racking... In icelandics the gait is called Tolt.... and in Tennessee Walkers its a running walk. Can be as fast as a medium Canter.

deb

The spacing can be quite different. Western horses do what is called a single foot, which is a variant on the rack.

The fox trot is a four beat gait that has a very different pattern from the walk; it is a diagonal gait, which makes it more suitable for use on slopes than the lateral gaits.

The Forest Service uses fox trotters because they have a smooth gait, and a good temperament. Fox trotters were the first horses ever ridden down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Fox trotter mules are popular for trail riding and hunting.

 

[The Yakima Kid]

Let's nominate Bama for "best rookie of the year." or "most improved poster"


Please Bama just nominate me for something that brings in piles of tax free dollars - really need that the most.

X2

 

[The Yakima Kid]

Can be faster than that in some:

Looks like he broke from a rack into a flat out pace there at the end. I love the way they fly.

 

[The Yakima Kid]

I have been Stepped on, Bit, Kicked, Fallen down with, Dragged, Tossed through a fence, nose bloodied, and Trampled Twice.... once by foot and once having a carriage pulled over the top of me. and I have been tossed off a good two hundred times..... Half of which my first year. (that was a time when helmets were only for the show arena too)

Worse one is getting Bit.... Its like having someone fasten vice grips on your skin and yanking.

it comes with the territory but also can be diminished with good training for both horse and rider.

deb

I had oodles of fun with the Shetland from Hell. We used to pronounce the "e" in Shetland as an "i" when the parents weren't in ear shot.

I used to be able to reduce my father to tears of helpless laughter by reading the old Collier's Encyclopedia description of the Shetland pony, which included terms like, "willing", "gentle", etc.

I've been left tastefully arrayed on a three wire barbed wire fence by a Shetland pony who had figured out how to get under the bottom wire and leave his troubles behind.

 

[The Yakima Kid]

Cotton Jockys.... NO boxers.... at first. Containment, fresh air, Short rides. The McClellan saddle is not only coool looking but designed for men. and for anyone who needs to spend long hours in the saddle.


I used to know a woman who built them for Calvary reenactments.... The human form has changed in size since cavalry days. So has the size of the horses... Bigger people wider horses. But I truly love the style and fit and the way the girthing is done on a McClellan.

but hay a good saddle is going to be comfortable no matter what. Learning to post the trot is also helpful western or english...

deb

My grandfather always insisted the McClellan was designed on the premise that the horse's back was valuable government property, and the troopers seat was his own problem.
He used to ride old style Fred Mueller high cantle saddles. I wish I could find one like that today - you could literally nap in the saddle on a safe horse and not fall off.

I'd skip learning to post and consider a Missouri Fox Trotter, or a good traditional Morgan or foundation Quarter Horse that can single foot. Or any gaited breed. Posting is for hackneys; it was invented for those who rode the coach horses in Britain before they figured out how to have the lines go up to a drive on the box.

Speaking of hackneys, at our town's annual fun fair, I had a chance to talk to the guy who has the kid's pony ride. He and I talk every year, and are always glad to do so, since he's a practical horseman and likes talking to other people into practical stock. His pony wheel is stocked with Quarter ponies and one larger hackney pony. I used the opportunity to shoe my husband the difference in movement - the hackney pony seems to just touch it's food to the ground and then pulls it quickly back into the air as if it had springs in it's legs, while the Quarter ponies sort of ease their feet out low to the ground and step down solid. It's really clear the difference that results from breeding a mudder that won't get mired in mud up to its hocks and breeding a horse for sure footedness on potentially dubious terrain with a ticked off range cow attached to the saddle.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
differences come also because of BioMechanics..... Some horses have freer shoulders and springier fetlocks...

there are Five natural gaits
Walk Which is four beat
Trot Which is two beat... diagonal landing at the same time
Canter Which is three beat. I cant describe it
Gallop Which is again a four beat gait.
Backing up Which is like the trot only in revers... diagonal feet landing at the same time

Then there are what some call artificial gaits. The horse has a tendency toward it and it is incouraged to perform it. Some are better than others. This article has several videos on how these gaits work.

http://myhorseuniversity.com/resources/eTips/April_2011/Didyouknow

Since I am a Dressage person at heart I prefer the standard Five gaits. But thats me.

deb

 

[chickadoodles]

I got this off Face Book but it is all BAMA!

 

[chickadoodles]

Let's nominate Bama for "best rookie of the year." or "most improved poster"


Please Bama just nominate me for something that brings in piles of tax free dollars - really need that the most.

 

[chickadoodles]

It's 2:30 am and DH and I just got back from picking up DS#1 at a wreck scene. No one was hurt, thankfully, and the truck is not totaled. We were very, very lucky. I hope he learned that you have to be constantly careful, it is a lesson that sometimes has to be learned by trial and error, rather than Mom's lectures. I won't be sleepy for a while.......

I'm glad your son is ok and that your truck is not totaled.