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Gaited horses
What is gait?
The gaited horse comes in many varieties, like different flavors of ice cream, so everyone can find one they like!
The novice to gaited horse is often confused by the multitude of different names for gait within the various breeds considered gaited horses.

The term gait is used in describing all forms of forward motion in all horses. The " normal horses' " walk, trot and canter are all considered gaits. But the "Gaited Horse" is an equine that has a very smooth gait that is different from that of most horses. Gaits performed by various breeds run the gamut of a four beat lateral gait to a four beat diagonal pattern, but they all have one thing in common, a comfortable ride!

Predisposition to gait is genetically inherited, and basically a horse that is strongly gaited has had this strengthened by generations of breeding until the tendency to trot has been replaced by an intermediate gait with a natural four beat rhythm.

Each individual horse will have a different quality of gait, just as trotting horses of the same breed can have different qualities of a trot! The smoothness of gait is influenced by many variables, these include genetically inherited predisposition for gait, conformation attributes to facilitate gait and tr