Do You Really Need a Gaited Trainer? By Anita Howe http://howtheywalk.com
People are often emailing or phoning me for training advice for their gaited horses. I often discover upon further query, that many of their issues are not truly gait related, but simply that their horse has never been trained with a good, sound natural horsemanship foundation. I find they are often over bitting the horse, or have been told to use weighted shoes to correct gait. I watch video they send me and commonly will see them trying to hold the horse's head high, having been told their "gaited" horse should be high headed and framed up. I realize there is a vast need for sound, gimmick-free gait correction help and advice, and there really are so very few trainers that truly understand how to help people who are seeking to train their horses to correctly gait without the use of harsh or mechanical "aids". So great is this need and so few are those of us to fill it that we cannot hope to make even a small dent in that need. So I want to advise you to take a good look at your horse to make this very honest determination: Do you really need gait correction at this time, or might you need good natural horsemanship training first? After all, these horses are not another species as many would like you to believe... they are first and foremost horses and should be trained as such. It is only after you have a good, solid foundation of softly giving to the bit, bending and balance, flexing and moving laterally off your legs, willingly stopping and moving out, that you can even begin to determine if your horse "might" have a real gait issue. All of these other things can make you think you have a gaiting problem that is really not there. I have often recommended people to find a good natural horsemanship trainer close to them to work with one on one. It is amazing the number of "gait issues" that miraculously disappear after the horse learns to give, bend, flex, move and respond to the rider in a soft and willing manor. I also highly recommend RFD-TV and the many natural horsemanship trainers offering their advice free of charge on there every week... you can learn a little (sometimes a lot) from each and every one of them. ____________________ Judy http://icehorses.net http://clickryder.com
