Gaiting Gawkiness
My in-laws have a mare who is a little behind on her training. I feel partially guilty as I have done pretty much all of the work on her except a few months that they had a trainer out to put a few rides on her while I was pregnant. It's been a bit of a fault of circumstance. I got her going fairly well (walk/trot, out on trails ridden twice) before I was pregnant with child #1. Between kids I had my own filly I started under saddle and after child #2 arrived I again focused on my filly getting her riding and driving well until her untimely passing last year (heart failure, sucked a lot).
The short version is I am FINALLY getting back to Cinnamon Strudel and trying to get her going well undersaddle. We had a slight set-back with her being resistant to go forward because the trainer had less-than-stellar timing when it came to getting her to move out. That appears to be mostly sorted now, but the "problem" I have now is that she decided she was gaited in the last year. There were some suspisions as she grew up, but she didn't really start to show it consistently until last year at eight (she'll be nine in December). She is a Quarter HorseXFox Trotter and just as happily gaits as she trots and apparently she just as happily canters as she gaits and trots all at approximately the same speed.
This is where I have my dilema: figuring out how to aid/cue for all of her gaits as at the moment she pretty much offers whatever feels best. Because of the aforementioned issue with her "go" button I am not discouraging any forward movement right now, which I realize perpetuates the "problem" to an extent, but I'd rather have her move forward willingly instead of bucking, rearing, or otherwise being sour.
The funny thing is that she doesn't gait when lungeing. She does know "walk, trot, canter" by voice form the ground, but the latter two are a little weird right now under saddle as sometimes she trots, sometimes she gaits, and sometimes she canters.
How would you go about teaching a horse to differentiate it's gaits? I know some of you have worked with gaited horses before so I figured I would pick brains here.
Here's a video of the stinky monster gaiting:
The short version is I am FINALLY getting back to Cinnamon Strudel and trying to get her going well undersaddle. We had a slight set-back with her being resistant to go forward because the trainer had less-than-stellar timing when it came to getting her to move out. That appears to be mostly sorted now, but the "problem" I have now is that she decided she was gaited in the last year. There were some suspisions as she grew up, but she didn't really start to show it consistently until last year at eight (she'll be nine in December). She is a Quarter HorseXFox Trotter and just as happily gaits as she trots and apparently she just as happily canters as she gaits and trots all at approximately the same speed.
This is where I have my dilema: figuring out how to aid/cue for all of her gaits as at the moment she pretty much offers whatever feels best. Because of the aforementioned issue with her "go" button I am not discouraging any forward movement right now, which I realize perpetuates the "problem" to an extent, but I'd rather have her move forward willingly instead of bucking, rearing, or otherwise being sour.
The funny thing is that she doesn't gait when lungeing. She does know "walk, trot, canter" by voice form the ground, but the latter two are a little weird right now under saddle as sometimes she trots, sometimes she gaits, and sometimes she canters.
How would you go about teaching a horse to differentiate it's gaits? I know some of you have worked with gaited horses before so I figured I would pick brains here.
Here's a video of the stinky monster gaiting:
Click to view