Why to Retrain the Pacey Horse

It seems that the majority of gaited horses you will meet do not do their natural gaits. Most will pace or do a stepping gait. In this article I will why it is important to retrain your horse to do there natural gaits.
A horse that paces is moving one set of lateral, or same side, legs in perfect unison, creating an even 2-beat gait, with a moment of suspension between one set of feet picking up and the opposite set striking the ground. The motion of the pace is from side to side, and because of the suspension, there’s also some up and down movement. Neither of these gaits are a smooth ride. If your horse is doing something incredibly bumpy when you are riding and you not knowing anything about gaited horses bought this horse from a person who said this bumpy gait is its special gait your where told wrong. No fun for the rider!
The stepping pace is nearly identical to the pace, except that the hind foot sets down a split second before the same side forefoot. This eliminates suspension, and the resultant concussion, that occurs in a straight pace. I typically see this in Missouri fox trotters more often than Tennessee Walkers and Rockys.
Sometimes a step pace is a smooth gait for the rider. But any horse performing this gait is normally strung out, is holding a high head and is hollow in the back. The stepping pace causes hyper extension of the legs and puts a lot of stress on the joints. This is common in gaited horses to occur because it is easier to perform than the running walk or Fox Trot. This frequently results in problems with the soundness of these structures. It also encourages a ventroflexed – hollow backed – frame, making the horse hard to fit for saddle, and weakened throughout its topline. Since the horse’s back muscle (the longissimus dorsi) is the largest muscle in its body, you want to keep it strong and healthy for as long as possible.
The Pace isn’t only bad for the horse, however. The most common complaint, by far, is from people who have horses with extremely uncomfortable pace gaits under saddle. Many of these people despair of ever being able to retrain these horses, yet are emotionally attached to them.
Many people do not realize there is a problem with the pace or step pace, and believe it is a correct saddle gait. One highly respected mainstream equestrian magazine ran a feature article on the subject of gaited horses, and every photo in the article showed horses, with widely grinning riders, performing fast pace or step pace gaits. Shows how much people know about gaited horses.

Look out for next months article on how to solve these gait problems!
~ Ariel Kent