barefoot tennessee walking horse | Naturally Gaited Horse

Do you have a gaited horse that has a hard trot instead of a smooth gait? I did. Don’t be discouraged. With a little patience and consistent training, you might discover a handful of easy gaits!
Here’s my story.

Hard Trot to Easy Gait

By Jennifer Klitzke

Meet Lady, a grade gaited horse who arrived at my place two years ago from a friend. When I first began working with Lady, she had two distinct gaits: a dog walk and a hard trot. My strategy was to increase the speed of her dog walk to develop a flat walk. Then I increased her tempo just before she broke into a hard trot. Over time a couple steps turned into a circle and then into a consistent naturally smooth fox walk and fox trot.

Over the last year Lady has developed four distinct easy gaits: a medium walk, a flat walk, a fox walk, and a fox trot. While her gaits aren’t fancy, nothing beats Lady on the trail. She’s bold, smooth, and extremely efficient in her gaits. She can ride for a couple hours without breaking a sweat. My naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse, Makana can hardly keep up with Lady on the trail without cantering!

Lady’s Easy Gaits

The medium walk is a even four-beat gait and the horse’s head and neck nod with each step. All horses, whether they gait or trot, can perform the medium walk. Ideally the horse’s hind hoof print should meet or overstep the front hoof print.

The free walk is also an even four beat gait where I allow the horse freedom to reach down and out with its head and neck and take maximum ground covering steps. I use the free walk as a great stretching exercise to begin and end every ride and several times within a riding session as a reward to the horse. An active balanced free walk is a great way to start the flat walk.

The flat walk is an even four beat gait where the horse’s head and neck nod with each step of the hind legs. Ideally the horse’s hind hoof prints should overstep the front hoof prints. Lady is naturally short strided, and we are working to increase her depth of stride through developing an active free walk on a long rein. The flat walk feels even smoother than the medium walk and free walk.

The fox walk which is a smooth, uneven four beat gait with a 1-2–3-4 timing. The horse’s legs on one side will lift up and set down independently. The front leg and its diagonal hind leg will move forward together, but the front hoof will meet the ground before the hind hoof.

The fox trot is my favorite of Lady’s gaits. Like the fox walk, it is a diagonal easy gait where the diagonal pairs of legs lift off the ground and move forward together, but the front hoof sets down before the hind hoof. In motion, the fox trot gait sounds like “ka-chunck, ka-chunck,” because the hind foot fall occurs moments after the fore footfall. The horse’s head and neck also nod with the motion of the hind legs. The fox trot feels like a gentle rocking forward and backward in the saddle. It is comfortable and fun.

Canter. Now that Lady is set in her easy gaits, I’ll start dabbling with canter. In the meantime, I continue to ask her to increase speed in her fox trot just before she breaks into a hard trot, and I allow her to move actively forward in a free walk to increase her depth of stride as she further develops her flat walk.

So if you have a gaited horse with a hard trot, don’t be discouraged. With a little patience and consistent training, you might find out that you have a handful of easy gaits ready to be discovered!