Jambette offers great stretching benefits for the naturally gaited horse. It teaches the horse to extend the foreleg and lift and chest and shoulder for greater mobility and range of motion.
Jambette and the Naturally Gaited Horse
By Jennifer Klitzke
The first time I saw jambette was in 2016 when my French dressage instructor was finishing up a training session with her upper-level mare. Jambette teaches the horse to extend a foreleg on cue while at a halt. It is the precursor to the Spanish walk. The Spanish Walk adds a walk step between the jambette. The jambette and Spanish walk offer great benefits for the naturally gaited horse’s shoulder mobility and chest muscle development which improve scope and range of motion.
Marvel is a three-and-a-half-year-old Tennessee Walking Horse / Spotted Saddle Horse gelding. I’ve been working with him for five months in preparation for spring saddle training.
The jambette and Spanish walk are upper-level movements I hadn’t considered teaching him at this stage. Yet combining his playful curiosity, high intelligence, and winter boredoms, Marvel had other ideas.
yet he told me otherwise.
How Jambette began with my Gaited Horse
In February 2022, I finished rasping the rough edges around Marvel’s front foot using the hoof stand. His front leg extended straight and forward. The next day I placed Marvel in the cross ties, and he began extending his front leg as if the hoof stand were there. The first time he did this, I thought it was rather humorous. The next day he did it again. After several days in a row, I knew his curious behavior was more than a fluke. Then Marvel began to extend the other front leg.
By golly, Marvel is teaching himself the jambette. Who am I to tell him, “No dude, the textbooks say this is an advanced movement and you need hold off a few years!”
What is my alternative? If I were to discourage Marvel, he likely would resort to pawing like Makana does. Pawing is an annoying habit which I haven’t had success curbing. So, if Marvel takes delight in an exercise that is beneficial to his body, I began putting cues to the jambette. Each time he offered a stretch with the front leg, I say,”jambette,” and touch his shoulder. Now Marvel offers jambette on cue and with each foreleg. (And I join his dance line routine, too!)
Then Makana, my 17-year-old naturally gaited Tennessee Walking Horse, began offering jambette in the cross ties, too. She must have been auditing Marvel’s shenanigans in the cross ties (or Marvel has been coaching her on the sidelines). Good thing, jambette has now replaced her years long annoying habit of pawing in the cross ties!
Jambette to Spanish Walk
The next step is to incorporate jambette with forward walk steps to develop the Spanish Walk—an exercise I have longed to teach a horse. Again, I have been in no hurry to teach the Spanish Walk, but if Marvel says otherwise, who am I to stop him.
Watch: Jambette and Spanish Walk
Yes, naturally gaited horses are versatile, personable, talented and intelligent.
After all, my naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse, Makana, taught me counted walk and piaffe. Naturally gaited horses are multi gaited horses and can learn jambette and Spanish Walk, too!
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