Re: cross breeds

["Michelle Fink" <michrowe@redwrench.com>]

The infamously unreliable book Heavenly Gaits talks about the genetics of gait.  There are supposedly two gait genes:  one is a gene that dictates whether the horse is a trotter or a pacer, the other gene is a modifier and says how gaited the horse is...  So a horse can be a strong trotter, or a weak trotter, strong pacer, etc.  If a horse is a weak trotter, it may do intermediate gaits of some sort.  What that boils down to is there are lots of variables in determining whether your foal will be gaited or not, and it's really not too predictable.  This makes sense to me since there is such a huge variation in how well gaited horses "gait", and it also explains why some non-gaited breeds, like Arabs, can have gaited individuals and family lines.

 

So has anyone else heard about the genetics of gait?  I wouldn't mind owning a gaited half Arab myself.  :-)

 

Michelle

(Colorado)