On 13/01/2008, Karen Thomas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >That's the sort of thing I'd like people - breeders in particular - to become aware of.
Not just breeders but ordinary owners like me should try to understand what gait their horse does naturally. I think a lot of unnecessary 'tolt' training happens because owners don't understand that their horse IS doing a gait, but that their horse just needs time to strengthen and develop that gait. (I'm learning, but my eye still fools me. I need to often pull stills from a video and study Lee's book. It was completely daunting to me when I started out, but it's getting easier as time passes.) I believe it's important for a youngster to have training in the basics first and leave concerns about gait completely out of the equation. So that's why I'm saying, learn to watch your youngster in the pasture, try to find the nuances in gait to reasure yourself that you DO have a gaited horse and find a good trainer that will give him the basics using good horsemanship techniques. It's also important (for me anyway) to understand where my youngster's range of gaits falls. Thankfully, it looks like Solon is nicely gaited....combine that with his good brain, and he'll be an outstanding trail horse some day. Yup...I think I'll keep him. Wanda
