I kind of agree with the other poster that it
also has a lot to do with conformation and
hip angles and also the training......went through a Liz Graves clinic last feb.
(well known gaited horse judge), and she gave us all sorts of criteria to apply
to see if the horse had the conformation to gait..
I took my half Walker gelding to see what she
thought of his conformation; he is a year under saddle and just developing that
fast, 4-beat walk, and occasionally I get a few steps of running walk....he is
by a strongly gaited TWH stallion, Benjamin Moore; out of a grade Arab or Anglo
Arab. The best way I can get him to push that 4-beat walk and hopefully into a
gait is hold him back from a group..and encourage the walk to catch
up....problem is this guy doesn't MIND separating from the
group!!!!
Here are some of my observations:
A lot depends on how we sit and ride; I have
owned both a pure Polish Arab mare who singlefooted; and an Anglo Arab who
developed a stepping pace (broken pace where the hind foot hits before the front
on the lateral side). She discovered this gait on a very long, boring down
hill road were the rider would not let her jig...hence, she discovered the rider
would allow this funny gait which was very smooth and fast. Same scenario
with the Arab....we don't allow jigging....
The Arab was short and chunky...and Anglo Arab was
extremely short backed and built like a Wildebeast!!! Huge shoulder,
strong hind end...built totally uphill, go figure....awesome trot and smooth
canter
A friend has an Arab gelding a good year under
saddle..where she concentrated on walk, walk, walk.......this guy now
does
the downhill stepping pace, awesome!!
My mustang is 3 years solid under saddle, with alot
of walking...last year she also discovered the downhill stepping pace....now she
also does a running walk at times. She is level backed, long backed and
very strong....
My Arab/Walker mare, no one knows the
parents....never did have any gait...but fast walk, nice trot and VERY smooth
canter.
Another friend has a QH type reg. Appaloosa...that
I think has the fastest walk I have ever seen, plus step paces and
foxtrots!!!!!
He is loose jointed, flexible and a wonder to
watch. Nobody would pick him out of a field as a gaited
horse!
The only common factor I can find here is that
these horses are NOT allowed to jig!!! There is no common conformation or
hip similarity. A majority of them are ridden in treeless
saddles.
But there are other great advantages to the
Arab/gaited cross. OFten you can get more size and bone into the mix, if
that is what the rider wants...sometimes a cooler personality....but even if
they DON'T do an easy gait, often all the gaits are smoother and easier on the
rider. All the half-gaited horses I have had do have excellent
canters.
One problem you can find with a pure gaited horse
is some tendency to be more "pacey"....I had a pure Walker who was very pacey,
as was my Foxtrotter mare....then that becomes something to struggle
with.
Hopefully Amber Applegait will pop in here with
some comments; she is Northwest queen of doing endurance with gaited horses and
I would love to see her comments, as I am pretty new to all this...just sharing
my experiences...Generally, I see the gait several years out under
saddle....
I have heard that too...that if one wants a gaited half Arab (or a gaited
horse that his half non-gaited), then to make sure that the gaited parent is
the mare for the greatest chance of getting gait. I've known of 6 horses
that were half of a gaited breed (2 Arab/Paso Finos, 2 Arab/TWH, 1 Morgan/MFT,
and 1 Arab/RMH). All were gaited, and in all cases, the dam was the
gaited breed. Of course, we need some examples the other way, with the
gaited parent beng the sire, to see if "the rule" works. <G>
