>>> Just another note. Solon is VERY gaited. Up until last year, he was >>> mostly lateral in his movement, so when I saw his diagonal movement >>> developing I was very happy. When he decides to trot now, he has a very >>> clean trot, so I would say he has a full spectrum of gaits just waiting to >>> bubble out.
Runa went through that same thing - very pacey for a while sometime between her 2nd and 4th years. Now, though, I see a lot of what APPEARS to be a clean, two-beat trot in her at liberty, or when she's ground-driven, but when I freeze-frame videos of her, I can actually see that her trot really isn't truly two-beat much of the time - in fact, sometimes it's fully what I'd consider foxtrot, and she can do a flat walk too. I don't think it's as obvious she foxtrots as with some other horses - you may have noticed that she has a short neck, rather highly set - that makes her head-nod not so apparent as it might be if she had a longer, or lower-set neck. Runa's conformation analysis shows her to be built much like Skjoni - who is the Crown Prince of Gaits. Skjoni is probably what many people would consider a "natural tolter" even though what he really offers is usually a saddle-rack or fox-rack. (He will trot too, and if he's uncomfortable, he can get pacey...but when all is well, he isn't very lateral at all.) When Liz Graves did a formal conformation analysis of Runa, she said that Runa is built such that she will probably prefer saddle rack, or even a true, single-foot rack - a.k.a. tolt. I believe that's probably very accurate. I haven't done a conformation analysis on Angie yet - she's quite hairy, and I want her trusting us 100% before I do too much poking to find her bones and joints, so I'll wait until she sheds to do one. But, I haven't seen her gait at all at liberty. She may have some gait in her, but so far all I've seen is trot - meaning trot like a three-gaited horse trots. Since she's accustomed to being chased into the barn for vet/farrier type procedures, the last thing I want to do right now is to chase her around to get gait videos - maybe I'll catch some random ones eventually. But, my on-the-way-to-becoming-but-not-yet-there eyes tell me that Angie is not going to be as strongly gaited as Runa - not by a long shot. We'll see...I'm still trying to train my eyes, and I still get surprised sometimes. :) Karen Thomas, NC No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.2/1221 - Release Date: 1/12/2008 2:04 PM
