>>> But yes, I do think they saddle rack. I think they tolt (rack), foxtrot, hard pace, etc... I think there's a huge range in our horses and each one moves a little different. Some move more stiffly and tend towards paciness. Some move with a lot of looseness and tend towards foxtrot or trottiness. Some that are stiff don't necessarily lean towards pace, some that move loose don't necessarily lean towards trot. There's just a very wide range of movements and soft gaits within the breed...
I think Dawn brought up a good point. I'd never heard the "stiffness" trait so strongly associated with pace until I got Icelandics. How true is this? I guess my gut tells me that a lot of gaited horses get pacey when they are stiff (or sore, uncomfortable, whatever) but I also see some horses trot very stiffly - all breeds including Icelandics. And I guess maybe there's a certain kind of stiffness associated with a strongly lateral horse, since they don't use their back muscles the same way a diagonal horse does, even if the cause is conformational/wiring as opposed to discomfort/tension. And I know I've seen some horses who step-pace who appear to me to be less stiff than some horses who trot... And that Aegidienberger in the video Judy linked to yesterday - my gut tells me that horse was probably very stiff in ALL its gaits, judging from the bouncing rider. (And if so, would that be from the rider, the riding style, the horse's innate characteristics...?) I guess my question would be, wouldn't we be better to address stiffness and innate gaitedness separately? The way I see it, they MAY be related sometimes, but often they aren't. Stiffness usually isn't a good thing at all, but if it's conformational, there may be a limit to how much we can clear it up...Whereas a horse like Loftur, who had been carrying a lot of pain for many years, is MUCH less stiff now than when I got him. Loftur's choice of gaits still remains to the lateral side though, although I do see him trot in the pasture occasionally now. Karen Thomas, NC
