Re: Nez Perce Appaloosas doing the shuffle (longish)

["Linda B. Merims" <lbm@ici.net>]

Lynne Glazer wrote:
> 
> Hi, Jennifer.
> 
> That description of the Indian shuffle gait does describe the
> singlefoot/stepping pace that most of today's TWH do and most MFT and SB
> can be easily trained to do: a broken lateral pace...

There are lots and lots of different broken lateral gaits, differentiated
by the timing of the two feet, whether the feet on one side overlap with
the feet on the other side, etc.   (There are also broken *diagonal*
gaits, e.g. a fox trot.)  In the 19th century they used to hold 7-gaited
classes at horse shows:  walk, trot, canter, and four additional clearly
distinct other gaits, some compulsory (rack) and some at the rider's discretion.
Indeed, more recently 5-gaited classes allowed the "slow gait" to be any
one of a stepping pace, amble, slow pace, running walk, or fox trot,
although the stepping pace is now strongly preferred.

Talking about gait variations is darned hard, particularly if restricted
to a keyboard.  You kind of have to have sat on one with the trainer
yelling "That's it, right there!" to learn it, or hear somebody make
sound effects.  I have sat on an amble, a rack, and a slow gait stepping
pace, but I've never felt a fox trot or a running walk (or a tolt or any
one of the various Icelandic gaits, or the Paso Fino gait) and am not sure
I could recognize for sure which unfamiliar one a horse was doing when I
felt it through my pants, or even less so when observing it from
the ground.

Linda B. Merims
lbm@ici.net
Massachusetts, USA