Gaited Horse

[Aurelie]

Hello guys and girls

Here i have a "translation trouble"

I ve seen several times this term "GAITED Horse"

about horses or even saddle trees

i can't find the right translation in french or even a good explanation in english for this "gaited" term

Anyone can explain to me what exactly it is?

I ve seen that the bars for a gaited horse saddle tree seems shorter and slightly tipped toward the outside

Reminds me of those "Hope" kind of bars mixed with Arabian bars

Is that right?

I would thanks anyone for giving me more explanation about this

[dirtclod]

Around where i live when somebody says a gaited horse they generaly are talking about a Saddlebred horse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Saddlebred . When they talk about a saddle horse their generally talking about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_Saddle_horse . May or may not be spotted. But it may have totaly different meaning in another part of the country.

[Aurelie]

Ok , thanks a lot for explanations and links

From what i understood, those "gaited" horses have a "special" bone structure + 5 gaited (walk, trot, and canter, but also ambling gaits)

That's it?

[AdamTill]

"Gaited" horses are basically any horse that have ways of moving in addition to the standard gaits of walk, trot, canter, and gallop. There are dozens of such breeds all over the world.

My Icelandic, for example, has a good running walk, tolt, and probably a flying pace as well. You can see a little bit of the running walk in this old video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn2DCQQcN4E

IMHO, the concept of a gaited horse saddle is marketing nonsense. The usual excuse is that somehow gaited horses need a greater range of shoulder movement then a normal horse, but I don't see how that's possible. You build a saddle to fit the horse in front of you, and it's not like a long trotting ranch QH needs less freedom of movement then a Tennesee Walking horse.

Lots of gaited horses like mine tend to be a little shorter backed or more compact, but the fact that they're gaited is just interesting information...not useful for making saddles.

Cheers,

Adam

[Aurelie]

"Gaited" horses are basically any horse that have ways of moving in addition to the standard gaits of walk, trot, canter, and gallop. There are dozens of such breeds all over the world.

My Icelandic, for example, has a good running walk, tolt, and probably a flying pace as well. You can see a little bit of the running walk in this old video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn2DCQQcN4E

IMHO, the concept of a gaited horse saddle is marketing nonsense. The usual excuse is that somehow gaited horses need a greater range of shoulder movement then a normal horse, but I don't see how that's possible. You build a saddle to fit the horse in front of you, and it's not like a long trotting ranch QH needs less freedom of movement then a Tennesee Walking horse.

Lots of gaited horses like mine tend to be a little shorter backed or more compact, but the fact that they're gaited is just interesting information...not useful for making saddles.

Cheers,

Adam

thanks again for all those advices, informations and opinions!

i am taking whatever stone i find to build up my wall of knowledge

[tackgirl956]

Hello guys and girls

Here i have a "translation trouble"

I ve seen several times this term "GAITED Horse"

about horses or even saddle trees

i can't find the right translation in french or even a good explanation in english for this "gaited" term

Anyone can explain to me what exactly it is?

I ve seen that the bars for a gaited horse saddle tree seems shorter and slightly tipped toward the outside

Reminds me of those "Hope" kind of bars mixed with Arabian bars

Is that right?

I would thanks anyone for giving me more explanation about this

Hi, we have been selling Paso Fino gaited saddle for over 10 yrs now, we often get the same question from customers. A gaited saddle is basically a saddle with a more narrow gullet (good flare a must) to set/ride higher up on the wither. In the instance of the Paso Fino horse, they are a very front end action

breed and require the saddle to be lifted up and off the wither and shoulder. If you ride this breed in a saddle that fits down too low on the wither, it can cause them to have to work to hard to lift all that weight up and off that area everytime lift their shoulders to gait. US saddlemakers tend to make saddles more for the standard gaited breeds like the TW, RM and FT, they are really just catching on good that gaited horses do gait better in a gaited tree saddle. Paso Fino's are lumped in with the other gaited breeds, but really require an even more narrow gullet than the other gaited breeds to perform their smooth up and down sewing machine gait. Hope this helps.

www.ranchodelrey.net

[Rod and Denise Nikkel]

A few years back we had a new-to-us customer call us up wanting a tree for a Paso Fino. The horse's owner was having problems getting a saddle to fit like she wanted to allow the horse to move the way he was capable of. Since this wasn't our normal western ranch horse, we asked the saddle maker to send back drawings to us. Then we built a tree as we normally would, changing the normal factors that affect fit the way we normally would to fit that shape of horse. We did nothing different that we would have for any other type of horse. And we shipped it off. A while later, we got a letter and another cheque in the mail from the saddle maker. The letter explained that his customer had come back in to him. She was so pleased with how well her horse was moving in the saddle that she gave him a bonus and since he felt that the tree had made a lot of the difference, he was sending half of it on to us! We have had similar comments from other gaited horse customers, and we just build our normal, well designed saddle tree that doesn't Poke (have high pressure points) and distributes the weight (Pressure) over as large a surface area as possible. But that is the only time we have ever received a bonus! A horse is a horse is a horse.

Edited April 23, 2012 by Rod and Denise Nikkel

[Aurelie]

Ok, thanks a lot everyone for the expalanation

i think i am getting a "grab" on the concept of "gaited"

i looked on google image to see those horses you mention

and from what i seeon picture and understand from your posts , it looks like these horses have a kind of "proeminent" wither (very steep) compared to a quarter horse (for example)

is this a "right" way of understanding it?

@Rod and Denise, i mostly work with custom hand made saddle trees (since i live in a country where QH are not the "norm" and i always send the drawings to my saddle tree maker and he always build a good saddle tree so i am not surprised by your explanations and i do understand what you are meaning (maybe i was lucky so far )

[SouthernTrailsGA]

Years ago I sold many off the shelf saddles and some of the most popular " Gaited Horse Saddles" had a 7" gullet, 22" long bars that had a slight flair in the front of the bars fro extra shoulder relief and had about a 94 degree angle in the bar, these were very similar to what many call Full-QH Bars.

These Saddles only fit about 40% of Gaited Horses, like a QH for example all Gaited Horse are built different and I have found there are 3 size trees needed for a Gaited Horse, as with any breed some have different wither heights, should sizes and widths in the wither area as well as the way the back is shaped.

Some regular trees like Semi-qh, reg. Qh and full QH will fit will fit Gaited Horse, I find most will not.

I have found some QH's with shoulders so large they needed the extra flair in front of the bars like a gaited style tree has.

But just like buying a size 10 shoe, all size 10's are not created equal, a little research is needed before buying any Saddle

[Newfman]

ADAM,

That is an incredible indoor arena. I've always had this image in my head of an indoor using Glu-Lam trusses for a high ceiling and broad clearspan. I just never thought somebody would do it! Is that a private arena or a riding club?

Now that I have seen one, I know my vision was a good one. Not that it is actually fulfillable. Nice video too. Thanks for adding that to the topic.

[Newfman]

What about the Appendix Quarterhorses? (Yes, I know they are not gaited.) I see very few of them up heah in uppah New England, but I do see hundreds of Warmbloods and quite a few Thoroughbreds. I noticed they have been breeding horses with more and more prominent withers. That leads me to believe that the new "Type" hot blood is getting bred back to the quarter horse. So is anybody noticing an increase in wither prominence in the Appendix QH breeds, and are you having to get modified trees to allow for it?

My warmblood has very prominent withers, and my Wade allows for just enough clearance. It fits well on the rest of his back. If he were to develop more muscling in his back it would provide even more clearance for the wither, but then the bars may no longer fit well.

( Not that it matters with him, since he is somewhat of a maniac, and the trainers say he should be canned.)

Anyhow, it just got me thinking about the Warmed-up quarter horse and what difference, if any, saddle makers have seen in tree design modifications.

Dennis

Edited April 29, 2012 by Newfman

[AdamTill]

ADAM,

That is an incredible indoor arena. I've always had this image in my head of an indoor using Glu-Lam trusses for a high ceiling and broad clearspan. I just never thought somebody would do it! Is that a private arena or a riding club?

Now that I have seen one, I know my vision was a good one. Not that it is actually fulfillable. Nice video too. Thanks for adding that to the topic.

Hi Dennis,

The arena is a private boarding stable in Alberta that caters mainly to dressage riders. VERY nice place to ride, I feel lucky to be able to keep my horse there.

Cheers,

Adam

[BondoBobCustomSaddles]

My experience is the same as Denise and Rod. While i do not make my own trees, I send very detailed templates of the horses back and pictures of the horse to the tree maker. The results have always been good fit, and that goes for Paso Finos, Tenn Walking horses and all the others. A good fitting tree that speads the weight evenly over the largest area on the horse and allows for movement without "poking" has always been just the trick.

Bob

[Sylvia]

Ok , thanks a lot for explanations and links

From what i understood, those "gaited" horses have a "special" bone structure + 5 gaited (walk, trot, and canter, but also ambling gaits)

That's it?

Another "gait" is pacing in this case the horse move both right legs forward and then both left legs. It's unusual but a very comfortable ride.

[Newfman]

StandardBred racers have Pacers and Trotters. The off track Pacers usually have to be retrained to trot to find homes for them. The raceorse owner/trainers isn't going to bother. They just dump them. Go figure. You can cover a lot of ground, real fast on a pacer, and he isn't likely to break gate. Pretty smooth as Sylvia posts. Now there is a horse that needs to be fitted for a saddle. They have Lonnngggg backs, tend a little towards mutton withers and broader backs. Really nice horses to rescue off the track if you want a good, but inexpensive horse. You'll also have to get his feet back under him. Many track farriers seem to have forgotten anatomy.