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Horse gaits are the different ways in which a horse can move, either naturally or as a result of specialized training by humans. Binomial name Equus caballus Linnaeus, 1758 The horse (Equus caballus, sometimes seen as a subspecies of the Wild Horse, Equus ferus caballus) is a large odd-toed ungulate mammal, one of ten modern species of the genus Equus. ...
WikiProject horse training is about methods of training horses, and all the related aspects of the relationship between people and horses. ...
Gaits can be roughly categorized into two groups: the "natural" gaits that nearly every horse will use without special training, and the "amble," or the "ambling" gaits, a collection of several other smooth footfall patterns that may appear naturally in some individuals but which usually occur only in certain breeds, and often require special training of the horse before a rider can request them on command. This page is a list of horse and pony breeds. ...
A young rider at a horse show in Australia. ...
"Natural" gaits
The so-called "natural" gaits are walk, trot, canter, and gallop (in increasing order of speed). Some people count these as three gaits by considering the gallop a variation of the canter, while others count them as four separate gaits. All four gaits are seen in wild horse populations. While a few other gaits may occur naturally to some horses, these four basic gaits occur in nature across almost all horse breeds. In a very few animals, the trot is completely replaced by the pace or an amble, but this is rare.
Walk
 The walk, a four-beat gait The walk is a four-beat gait that averages about 4 mph. When walking, a horse's legs follow this sequence: left hind leg, left front leg, right hind leg, right front leg, in a regular 1-2-3-4 beat. At the walk, the horse will always have one foot raised and the other three feet on the ground, save for a brief moment when weight is being transferred from one foot to another. A horse moves its head and neck in a slight up and down motion that helps maintain balance. ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1477x1153, 574 KB) A mounted police officer passes Buckingham Palace, London. ...
ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1477x1153, 574 KB) A mounted police officer passes Buckingham Palace, London. ...
Miles per hour is a unit of speed, expressing the number of international miles covered per hour. ...
Ideally, the advancing rear hoof oversteps the spot where the previously advancing front hoof touched the ground. The more the rear hoof oversteps, the smoother and more comfortable the walk becomes. Individual horses and different breeds vary in the smoothness of their walk. However, a rider will almost always feel some degree of gentle side-to-side motion in the horse's hips as each hind leg reaches forward. This page is a list of horse and pony breeds. ...
The fastest walk is the hereditary "running walk" of the Tennessee Walking Horse, described under "Ambling gaits" below. If a horse begins to speed up and lose a regular cadence to its gait, the horse is no longer walking, but is beginning to either trot or move into an alternative ambling or "singlefoot" gait. ...
Horse gaits are the different ways in which a horse can move, either naturally or as a result of specialized training by humans. ...
Trot
 The trot, a two-beat gait involving diagonal pairs of legs. The two legs with white stockings are off the ground. -
The trot is a two-beat gait that averages about 8 mph, or roughly the speed a human can run. A very slow trot is sometimes referred to as a jog. An extremely fast trot has no special name, but in harness racing, the trot of a Standardbred is faster than the gallop of the average non-racehorse. Image File history File links Trot. ...
Image File history File links Trot. ...
Image File history File links LipizzanAnimated. ...
Image File history File links LipizzanAnimated. ...
The trot is a gait of the horse where the diagonal pairs of legs move forwards at the same time, a diagonal gait. ...
A trotter training at Vincennes hippodrome Harness racing is a form of horse-racing in which the horses race in a specified gait. ...
Standardbred harness racing horses are so called because in the early years of the Trotting Registry, the standardbred stud book established in the United States in 1879 by the National Association of Trotting Horse Breeders, only horses who could race a mile in a standard time or better, or whose...
Horse-racing is an equestrian sporting activity which has been practiced over the centuries; the chariot races of Roman times were an early example, as was the contest of the steeds of the god Odin and the giant Hrungnir in Norse mythology. ...
In this gait, the horse moves its legs in unison in diagonal pairs. From the standpoint of the balance of the horse, this is a very stable gait, and the horse need not make major balancing motions with its head and neck.
The trot is the working gait for a horse. Despite what one sees in movies, horses can only canter and gallop for short periods at a time, after which they need time to rest and recover. Horses in good condition can maintain a working trot for hours. The trot is the main way horses travel quickly from one place to the next.
Depending on the horse and its speed, a trot can be difficult for a rider to sit because the body of the horse actually drops a bit between beats and bounces up again when the next set of legs strike the ground. Each time another diagonal pair of legs hits the ground, the rider can be jolted upwards out of the saddle and meet the horse with some force on the way back down, unless he or she is trained to relax and absorb the shock of the gait. To not be jostled out of the saddle and to not harm the horse by bouncing on its back, riders must learn specific skills in order to ride a trot.
Most riders can easily learn to sit a slow jog trot without bouncing. A skilled rider can ride even a powerfully extended trot without bouncing, but to do so requires well-conditioned back and stomach muscles, and to do so for long periods is tiring for even experienced riders. A fast, uncollected, racing trot, such as that of the harness racing horse, is virtually impossible to sit.
Therefore, at most speeds above a jog, especially in English riding disciplines, most riders post to the trot, rising up and down in rhythm with the horse to avoid being jolted. Posting is easy on the horse's back, and once mastered is also easy on the rider. English riding is a term used in the United States to describe a form of horseback riding that is seen throughout the world. ...
Because the trot is such a safe and efficient gait for a horse, learning to ride the trot correctly is an important component in almost all equestrian disciplines. Nonetheless, "gaited" or "ambling" horses that possess smooth 4-beat intermediate gaits that replace or supplement the trot (see "ambling gaits" below), are popular with riders who prefer for various reasons not to have to ride at a trot. A young rider at a horse show in Australia. ...
Two variations of the trot are specially trained in advanced dressage horses: the Piaffe and the Passage. The Piaffe is essentially created by asking the horse to trot in place, with very little forward motion. The Passage (rhymes with "massage") is an exaggerated slow motion trot. Both require tremendous collection, careful training and considerable physical conditioning for a horse to perform. An upper-level dressage competitor performing an extended trot Dressage (a French term meaning training) is a path and destination of competitive horse training, with competitions held at all levels from amateur to the Olympics. ...
The piaffe is a high school dressage movement where the horse is in a highly collected and cadenced trot, in place or nearly in place. ...
The passage is a movement seen in upper-level dressage, in which the horse performs a highly-elevated and extremely powerful trot. ...
Canter -
 An Andalusian performing the canter. The left hind and right fore will land at the same moment, creating three beats in the stride. This horse is on the left lead, as the left fore will land last. The canter is a controlled, three-beat gait that usually is a bit faster than the average trot, but slower than the gallop. Listening to a horse canter, one can usually hear the three beats as though a drum had been struck three times in succession. Then there is a rest, and immediately afterwards the three-beat occurs again. The faster the horse is moving, the longer the suspension time between the three beats. Horse gaits are the different methods by which a horse, either naturally or through human training, moves itself. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1433x1105, 403 KB) Andalusian as presented on the german horsefair Equitana 02. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1433x1105, 403 KB) Andalusian as presented on the german horsefair Equitana 02. ...
Andalusian horse The Andalusian horse or Spanish horse is one of the purest breeds of horses in the world today. ...
In the canter, one of the horse's rear legs – the right rear leg, for example – propels the horse forward. During this beat, the horse is supported only on that single leg while the remaining three legs are moving forward. On the next beat the horse catches itself on the left rear and right front legs while the other hind leg is still momentarily on the ground. On the third beat, the horse catches itself on the left front leg while the diagonal pair is momentarily still in contact with the ground.
The more extended foreleg is matched by a slightly more extended hind leg on the same side. This is referred to as a "lead". Except in special cases, a horse should lead with its inside feet on a circle. Therefore, a horse that begins cantering with the right rear leg as described above would have the left front and rear legs more extended. This would be referred to as being on the "left lead".
When a rider is added to the horse's natural balance, the question of the lead becomes more important. When riding in an enclosed area such as an arena, the correct lead provides the horse with better balance. The rider typically signals the horse which lead to adopt when moving from a slower gait into the canter. In addition, when jumping over fences, the rider typically signals the horse to land on the correct lead to approach the next fence or turn. The rider can also request the horse to deliberately take up the wrong lead (counter-canter), a move required in some dressage competitions, which requires a degree of collection and balance in the horse. The switch from one lead to another while moving in a straight line is called the "flying lead change" or "flying change". This switch is also a feature of dressage and reining schooling and competition. An upper-level dressage competitor performing an extended trot Dressage (a French term meaning training) is a path and destination of competitive horse training, with competitions held at all levels from amateur to the Olympics. ...
The flying change is a movement performed by a horse in which he changes leads at the canter. ...
Reining is a Western horseback riding competition. ...
If a horse is leading with one front foot but the opposite hind foot, it produces an awkward rolling movement, called a cross-canter, disunited canter or "cross-firing."
The word is commonly said to be short for "Canterbury-gallop", but it may come from an expression meaning "corner-gallop". Statistics Population: 42,258 (2001) Ordnance Survey OS grid reference: TR145575 Administration District: City of Canterbury Shire county: Kent Region: South East England Constituent country: England Sovereign state: United Kingdom Other Ceremonial county: Kent Historic county: Kent Services Police force: Kent Police Ambulance service: South East Coast Post office and...
Gallop
 The suspension phase, seen in the canter and the gallop The gallop is very much like the canter, except that it is faster, more ground-covering, and the three-beat canter changes to a four-beat gait. It is the fastest gait of the horse, averaging about 25 to 30 miles per hour, and in the wild is used when the animal needed to flee from predators or simply cover short distances quickly. Horses seldom will gallop more than a mile or two before they need to rest, though at a moderately-paced gallop can sustain it for longer distances before they become winded and have to slow down. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1514x839, 328 KB) Horse Racing Foto by Softeis, 28/05/2005 at Galopp Riem 05/06/2005, Munich, Germany. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1514x839, 328 KB) Horse Racing Foto by Softeis, 28/05/2005 at Galopp Riem 05/06/2005, Munich, Germany. ...
Image File history File links Muybridge_race_horse_animated. ...
Image File history File links Muybridge_race_horse_animated. ...
Image File history File links Horse_gif. ...
Image File history File links Horse_gif. ...
A rotoscope is a device that enables animators to trace live action movement, frame by frame, for use in animation. ...
The Horse in Motion Eadweard Muybridge (April 9, 1830 – May 8, 1904) was a British-born photographer, known primarily for his early use of multiple cameras to capture motion. ...
A hawk consuming its prey, a small rodent. ...
The gallop is also the gait of the classic race horse. Modern Thoroughbred horse races are seldom longer than a mile and a half, though in some countries Arabian horses are sometimes raced as far as two and a half miles. The fastest race horse is the American quarter horse, which in a short sprint of a quarter mile or less has been clocked at speeds approaching 50 mph. Horse-racing is an equestrian sporting activity which has been practiced over the centuries; the chariot races of Roman times were an early example, as was the contest of the steeds of the god Odin and the giant Hrungnir in Norse mythology. ...
Thoroughbred race horses The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known as a race horse. ...
The Arabian horse is a breed of horse with a reputation for intelligence, high spirit, and outstanding stamina. ...
A palomino Quarter Horse shown in-hand. ...
Like a canter, the horse will strike off with its non-leading hind foot; but the second stage of the canter becomes, in the gallop, the second and third stages because the inside hind foot hits the ground a split second before the outside front foot. Then both gaits end with the striking off of the leading leg, followed by a moment of suspension when all four feet are off the ground. A careful listener or observer can tell an extended canter from a gallop by the presence of the fourth beat.
Contrary to the old "classic" paintings of running horses, which showed all four legs stretched out in the suspension phase, when the legs are stretched out, at least one foot is still in contact with the ground. When all four feet are off the ground, the legs are bent rather than extended.
According to Equix, who analyze the biometrics of racing thoroughbreds, the average racing colt has a stride length of 24.6 feet; that of Secretariat, for instance, was 24.8 feet, which was probably part of his success. Equix Biomechanics is a company in Lexington, Kentucky, which analyzes the physiology of thoroughbred racehorses to determine what factors into their success, and uses this knowledge to analyze the potential of horses and suggest possible breedings which may prove successful. ...
To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
Secretariat may refer to: A racehorse who won the Triple Crown in 1973, see Secretariat (horse) In a Communist Party, a Secretariat is a key body that controls the central administration of the party, and if it is a ruling party, the country. ...
A controlled gallop used to show a horse's ground-covering stride in horse show competition is called a "gallop in hand" or a hand gallop. A horse show is a judged exhibition of horses and ponies. ...
Note that when a horse jumps over a fence, the legs are stretched out while in the air, and the front legs hit the ground before the hind legs, which is completely different from the suspended phase of a gallop. Essentially, the horse takes the first two steps of a galloping stride on the take-off side of the fence, and the other two steps on the landing side. A horse has to collect its hindquarters after a jump to strike off into the next stride.
In 1892, Leland Stanford settled an argument about whether galloping horses were ever fully airborne: he paid photographer Eadweard Muybridge to devise an apparatus with multiple trip wires attached to camera shutters. The photos, the first documented example of high-speed photography, clearly showed the horse airborne. 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...
Amasa Leland Stanford (March 9, 1824 – June 21, 1893) was an American business tycoon, politician and founder of Stanford University. ...
Muybridges The Horse in Motion. ...
Pace The Pace is a lateral two-beat gait. In the pace, the two legs on the same side of the horse move forward together, unlike the trot, where the two legs diagonally opposite from each other move forward together. In both the pace and the trot, two feet are always off the ground. The trot is much more common, but some horses, particularly in breeds bred for harness racing, naturally prefer to pace. Pacers are also faster than trotters on the average, though horses are raced at both gaits. Among standardbred horses, pacers breed truer than trotters – that is, trotting sires have a higher proportion of pacers among their get than pacing sires do of trotters. Image File history File links Muybridge_horse_pacing_animated. ...
Image File history File links Muybridge_horse_pacing_animated. ...
A trotter training at Vincennes hippodrome Harness racing is a form of horse-racing in which the horses race in a specified gait. ...
Standardbred harness racing horses are so called because in the early years of the Trotting Registry, the standardbred stud book established in the United States in 1879 by the National Association of Trotting Horse Breeders, only horses who could race a mile in a standard time or better, or whose...
A slow pace is relatively comfortable, as the rider is lightly rocked from side to side. However, a fast pace is uncomfortable for riding and almost impossible to sit, because the rider is moved rapidly from side to side. A rider cannot post to a pacing horse. The motion feels somewhat as if the rider is on a camel, another animal that naturally paces. However, a camel is much taller than a horse and so even at relatively fast speeds, a rider can follow the rocking motion of a camel. A pacing horse, being smaller and taking quicker steps, moves from side to side at speed at a rate that becomes difficult for a rider to follow, so though the gait is faster and useful for harness racing, it become impractical as a gait for riding at speed over long distances. Species Camelus bactrianus Camelus dromedarius Camels are even-toed ungulates in the genus Camelus. ...
A horse that paces and is not used in harness is often taught to perform some form of amble, obtained by lightly unbalancing the horse so the footfalls of the pace break up into a four beat lateral gait that is smoother to ride.
"Ambling" gaits There are a number of four-beat intermediate gaits. Though there are differences in footfall patterns and speed, historically they were once grouped together and collectively referred to as the "amble." All are faster than a walk but usually slower than a canter or gallop. They are smoother for a rider than either a trot or a pace and most can be sustained for relatively long periods of time, making them particularly desirable for trail riding and other tasks where a rider must spend long periods of time in the saddle. Trail riding is riding on trails as opposed to riding on roads or courses. ...
Some ambling gaits are lateral gaits, meaning that the feet on the same side of the horse move forward one after the other, (for example, a footfall pattern of left rear, left front, right rear, right front) others are diagonal, meaning that the feet on opposite sides of the horse move forward in sequence (for example, left rear, right front, right rear, left front)
Not all horses can perform an ambling gait. However, many breeds can be trained to produce them, and there are several breeds of horses who inherit the ability to perform these gaits either naturally from birth or with a minimal amount of training. In some cases, horses without natural gaited ability can be taught an ambling gait by being slightly restrained at a trot or pace while the length of the stride is kept long, but the rider will ask the horse to alter its balance so that the two strides break up in such a manner to produce a four-beat gait.
Running Walk The Running Walk is a four-beat gait with footfalls in the same sequence as the regular walk, but characterized by greater speed and smoothness. The horse retains a regular 4-beat cadence but the running walk is characterized by an extreme overreach of the hind foot (often being placed as far as 24 inches ahead of where the front foot landed) and speeds of up to 10 mph. It is a distinctive natural gait of the Tennessee Walking Horse. ...
Slow gait The slow gait is a general term for several slightly different gaits that follow the same general footfall pattern as the walk, in that lateral pairs of legs move forward in sequence, but the rhythm and collection of the movements are different. The common thread is that all are smooth gaits, comfortable to the rider. Terms for various slow gaits include the stepping pace and singlefoot. Some slow gaits are natural to some horses, while others are developed from the pace or the trot. All are very smooth; the stepping pace is said to have been used at times to transport wounded soldiers from battlefields.
Rack The rack or racking is a gait that is also known historically as the "Virginia Single-foot Gait," with many breeds of horses capable of producing this gait, but most commonly associated with the Five-Gaited American Saddlebred. In the rack, the speed is increased to be approximately that of the pace, but instead of being a two-beat gait like the trot and the pace, it is a four-beat gait with equal intervals between each beat. The American Saddlebred is a breed of horse that was developed in Kentucky by plantation owners. ...
The rack, like other intermediate gaits, is smoother than the trot because the hooves hitting the ground individually rather in pairs minimizes the force and bounce the horse transmits to the rider. To achieve this gait the horse must be in a "hollow position". This means that, instead of a rounded back as seen in dressage horses and those that work off their hind quarters, the spine is curved downward. This puts the racking horse in the best position to rack without breaking into another gait. If the rider sits back or leans slightly back, this will cause the hollow back, or the back to curve downward. This allows the legs to trail and makes the rack easier for the horse. The downside of this is that this position weakens the back and makes the horse less able to carry the weight of the rider without strain. An upper-level dressage competitor performing an extended trot Dressage (a French term meaning training) is a path and destination of competitive horse training, with competitions held at all levels from amateur to the Olympics. ...
A speed racker can be as fast as a canter. The ride is smooth, and the rider appears to remain motionless as the horse racks. The horse itself maintains a fairly still head and most of the action is in the legs.
The rack is a genetic trait in a breed called the Racking horse. A racking horse can rack as easily as other horses trot or canter. At horse shows, the Slow gait and the Rack are required gaits for the Five-Gaited American Saddlebred, who also performs the walk, trot and canter. Some people debate if the Racking Horse is a stand-alone breed, but is was given that designation by the USDA in 1978, and the breed has its own organization today. ...
A horse show is a judged exhibition of horses and ponies. ...
The American Saddlebred is a breed of horse that was developed in Kentucky by plantation owners. ...
Fox trot -
The fox trot is most often associated with the Missouri Foxtrotter breed, but is also seen under different names in other gaited breeds. The fox trot is a four-beat diagonal gait in which the front foot of the diagonal pair lands before the hind, eliminating the moment of suspension and giving a "no bounce" ride. The foxtrot is a comfortable gait for trail-riding. [1][2][3] This article is about a horses gait. ...
The Fox Trotting Horse, a pleasure and using horse, was developed in the rugged Ozark Hills to answer the needs for a horse that could carry a heavy load for long hours at a ground consuming gait and, at the same time, a gait that was easy for both horse...
Paso gaits The Peruvian Paso and Paso Fino are two breeds which have a smooth innate intermediate gait. The Paso Fino several speed variations called (from slowest to fastest) the paso fino, paso corto, and paso largo. 13 year old Peruvian Paso mare The Peruvian Paso is a truly unique breed of horse considered to be the smoothest riding horse on earth. ...
The Paso Fino is a beautiful, naturally-gaited horse with a history dating back many centuries to Spain. ...
Tölt The Tölt (also, less correctly, Tolt) is a gait that is often described as being unique to the Icelandic Horse. In its pure form, the footfalls are the same as in rack, but the Icelandic horse is bred for more freedom and liquidity of movement. The most prized horses have a very long stride and high lift with their forelegs.[4][5] Icelandic Riders will demonstrate the smoothness of a tölt by going at the speed of a gallop without spilling a drink they hold. However, some horses have a tölt that is considered imperfect, and may be described as a "trotty tölt" or a "pacey tölt".[6] Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2272x1704, 1797 KB) Two Icelandic horses at the tölt. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2272x1704, 1797 KB) Two Icelandic horses at the tölt. ...
The Icelandic horse is a breed of pony that has lived in Iceland since the mid-800s, having been brought to the island by Viking settlers. ...
The Icelandic horse is a breed of pony that has lived in Iceland since the mid-800s, having been brought to the island by Viking settlers. ...
The Icelandic horse is a breed of pony that has lived in Iceland since the mid-800s, having been brought to the island by Viking settlers. ...
The majority of Icelandic horses can also pace, and are thus called "five-gaited". Their five gaits are walk, trot, canter, tölt, pace. Good pacers are held in high regard in this breed, but for a pacer to stand out he has to be able to perform the pace at a high speed.[7] Slow pacing in Icelandic horses is considered a major flaw. A horse that goes at a slow pace, or "piggy-pace," is called lullari.
Some breeds of horses that are related to the Icelandic horse, living in the Faroe Islands and Norway, also tölt.
See also A number of animals have evolved so as to be able to travel over the ground. ...
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