On the same page with Stan's videos about saddle fit, http://www.hestakaup.com/content/view/59/97/ , he said something I'd never heard before: "There is much to suggest that the tölt was only discovered in Iceland by some priests who first wrote about it in the 1850's and prior to that the horses went in a pace to which they were confined by their rigid wooden saddles."
Has anyone else heard that? Could it be true? Gosh knows, Sina, and many other gaited horses, will certainly go pacey when they are tense in some way, and saddle fit discomfort is a sure way to cause tension. Sina's pace is what motivated me into the Great Saddle Search. Ironically, she foxtrots about as much now as she saddle racks. She's not a pacey horse, as I initially worried. If it's true, is there any reason to glorify and promote pace as a preferred/expected gait in the breed? Karen Thomas, NC
