Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

A lot of Paso people in the west seem to think that a horse needs to be collected to gait well.  My 15 seconds of "fame" was in a David Litchman video showing that indeed that is NOT the case.  Pete has always gaited well, collected or not.  

I have worked on getting him "balanced" and comfortable in whatever gait and carriage.  I have not heard about gaited horses being "upside-down".  I will have to read up on that (Thanks for the reference Dana).  Pete does not seem "upside-down" to me, but his gait is not an animated one.  It is more like a shuffle; no high foot action.

-Paul L.
On Wednesday, March 17, 2004, at 08:10 AM, Dana B. wrote:

> Julie wrote:
>
> I think that "collection" ( I can't seem to find a term
> for what I am trying to say... Help me out here guys!) is paramount to
> having a horse that can move safely down the trail, in control, but
> able to adjust to various terrain, at various gaits and speeds in a
> natural manner...
>
> ?
>
> Maybe you mean right-side up, and not upside-down? :-)? I'm referring to an article specifically written by Lee Ziegler for gaited horses about collection.? See http://members.aol.com/mfthorses/upsidelz.htm? (BTW it describes a number of Arabs I know, including my own at times). ? Lee has a number of excellent articles about gaited horses on her site.? Lee and other gaited horse clinicians strongly believe that most if not all soft gaits require the horse to be upside-down to a certain degree, and thus they strongly discourage keeping a horse in gait for long periods of time.? For instance, when doing the Paso Fino gaits (various forms of the rack) there is no way the horse can be in 'true' collection (or bascule, as Dr. Deb would say).
>
> I have extremely well gaited Paso Finos.? They hit the ground gaiting at birth, and they will gait like fools with total novices on their backs.? That said, on the trail they will do a variety of gaits, and one of my signals that they are getting tired is that they will become trotty.? Do I force them to gait at that point, just because they can or because I'm afraid they will "forget" how to gait: absolutely not!? I take that as a signal like any other.? Frequently after a period of trotting they will 'refresh' and resume gaiting all on their own.
>
> I can't speak for other breeds, but you bet I let my Pasos trot if they feel like they need to - that's part of my job in putting the horse first.
>
> JMO
>
> Dana
>
> ?
>
>
>
> ddbpaso@xxxxxxxxx
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