He needs to be challenged

[@catherinedemick1103]

I love using obstacles to focus them

[@LenaPalmier]

An amazing example: find something to say them a big "YES" instead of fighting and remaining on a "No, don't do this or that". Give them a job = focus for connection. Great job!

[@SAR-f4o]

Thank you for mentioning giving him a reason to do a task!! My boy is the exact same way. So glad to see another gaited horse like mine.

[@georgiascott5779]

I have a horse that kept his ears on me the first few times I rode him. Now he almost NEVER does so. I can see his eye focused outside side looking for another horse.

[@lydiagould3090]

My horse's enthusiasm (or lack of) was much improved with using obstacles.She will be a great working equitation or trail horse. I think Steel might be too, but what's his owner got planned for him?

[@Silfverlyktansdressyr]

Does the tarp work with 4 icedubs in all hooves?

[@broda1824]

Excuse my ignorance, but can I ask, are gaited horses born that way or is it something that they are trained to be able to do? Also can the trot in the more usual way too? Last question, I promise😬. What are the pros and cons of riding a gaited horse? As you can tell I don’t know anything about them except that many of the race trotting horses in the UK are gaited or what we would call “pacers”. TIA

[@Sine-gl9ly]

I'm English too. Pacing is the most common sort of 'extra' gait outside the 'normal' ones, but many pacers can also trot. That's a simple shift of diagonal movement to same-side movement, but the gaits of truely 'gaited' horses are much more varied. There's quite a community of Icelandic horse owners and enthusiasts in the UK of which the majority are gaited; that might be a good place to start looking if you want to see some in action. Gaits are inborn, and are simply a different sort of inbuilt brain 'programming', as it were. Gaits can be developed and improved with the right sort of training, and 'cued' with different signals. They can also be discouraged with different ways of riding. Watching gaited horses - be they Icelandic, or from the America, or elsewhere - on youtube, very slowed-down, is fascinating. Different breeds of gaited horse will tend to use different names for the different gaits, but there are only a limited number of footfall patterns which can be safely produced for locomotion in the horse. Some breeds tend towards one or two pattern, and others to a different one or two. Occasionally donkeys are gaited, too, and gaited mules are a thing too. In the days of videotapes, I once bad a video of a most wonderful 16 hand gaited mule, entering a large arena in Peru and circling it at considerable speed, while the rider poured out brimming glasses of champagne, which he then carried round on a tray, and none of them spilt!

[@timandersonhorsetraining]

Each gaited breed has a different way of moving but the pace is an undesired gait with most gaited horse breeds.

[@broda1824]

@Sine-gl9ly Thank you for your very informative and interesting reply.

[@broda1824]

@@timandersonhorsetraining Thank you very much for your reply.

[@Sine-gl9ly]

@broda1824 No problem! Many years ago, one of my uncles was the farrier at Droylsden Harness Racing Track, in Greater Manchester. Of course it's been housing estates for a long tine now ...

[@yessabell1707]

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