On Mon, Mar 05, 2007 at 05:58:35PM -0500, Karen Thomas wrote: > >>>> You do understand that the legs pick up laterally in "tolt" right? > > >>no, i don't; i think it should be four-beat. > > I assume by "beat" you mean in sound? The beat is determined by the > set-down - you don't hear anything when they pick-up their feet. There are > three gaits that have an even beat (meaning sound): running walk, saddle > rack and rack, meaning that they are even in set-down.
yes, just so. i can hear that from the saddle; the one virtue of our current lousy footing really :) > What differentiates > running walk from the racks (a.k.a. tolt) is the pick up. The pick up is > even in running walk, but lateral in the rack. i understand this from lee zeigler's book and freeze-framing, but i don't even remotely pretend i can tell either from the saddle or from a realtime video or watching my horse. so i'm calling them all "tolt" for now, in the icelandic sense of the word (note that i don't substitute the english "rack" indiscriminately). > It's much easier for me to distinguish the gaits now by > letting myself feel the gaits, and by watching for the associated body > language. (For example, an up and down head-nod is usually a symptom of a > flat walk, running walk or foxtrot. A head without much motion is probably > a rack or saddle rack - if the gait is a soft gait. A "v" head motion is > probably a stepping pace or pace...) stjarni's head tends to be pretty still, even if i suspect from my seat (more side-to-side motion) that he's becoming pacey. he moves his head quite a lot at the walk and the canter, but not at the trot or his variations on the soft gaits, afaict. > If you are really interested in learning the nuances of all the soft gaits, > listening for the beat won't tell you the whole story. A foxtrot will sound > like a stepping pace and a running walk will sound like a saddle rack. indeed, i suspect you are right. but until and unless i find some way to videotape and freeze-frame us, my information is more limited, and i try not to claim more than i really can know. (my apologies if my limits in terminology have left a false impression about that...) --vicka
