Over the years I’ve met a lot of people that came here to buy a horse, have a horse trained, or to sell a horse. Some were beginners, some had horses their whole lives but were switching to gaited, some had always had walkers or fox trotters. I’ve collected some of my favourite questions and comments from those experiences here.
Why Missouri fox trotters?
To be honest, I just fell in love with them. They were something different, almost exotic. My first experience with fox trotters was with my friend Rick. He has had three beautiful mares in the years I’ve known him, and all of them have really impressed me with not only their ability to travel long distances in a smooth gait, but also how hardy they are, not to mention beautiful and smart. Some of them sure have a lot of personality, but I think that comes with every breed.
How I ended up with the ones I have is a very long story that I will try to put together in another post. I wished for fox trotters, and I ended up with a whole herd of them. It seemed fortuitous the way some of them ended up here.
If it’s a Tennessee Walker, how can it do it a fox trot?
My initial response to this one is, why wouldn’t it be able to fox trot?
I forget that not everyone is completely obsessed with the different patterns a gaited horse is capable of moving its feet in, like I am. This is the way I think about it. A gaited horse, regardless of breed, has two copies of the gaited gene. We can test for this. The gaited gene, as far as I’m aware of, doesn’t tell the horse that “hey you’re a Tennessee Walker so you flat walk, run walk and canter only”.
Breeding, conformation and the horse’s natural inclination certainly influence which gaits they prefer, and remember, the horse will always do what’s easiest. This is why regardless of which gaited breed a horse is, they tend to all do the same gaits. The names of the same gait may change between registries, but in the end it all comes down to footfalls. Keep in mind I am generally speaking about the breeds I have experience with, such as walkers, fox trotters, single footers, Paso Fino, Rocky Mountain Horse, Spotted Mountain Saddle Horse and even a bit of Icelandic.
And that’s all without even adding the rider into the equation. As riders, we have all the influence when it comes to which gait a horse does under saddle. Not only is it our job to show them which gait we prefer, our weight and riding ability greatly impacts their performance.
This is why I always say never judge a horse by what gait it does in the pasture. Once they have a rider on them, their go-to gait can completely change. Not only that, footing, terrain, hills, mud, straight lines, circles, all can impact the patterns of footfalls.
Yes, a Tennessee Walker can fox trot. It can also trot, pace, as well as their breed designated gaits such as flat walk and run walk. Many can also rack or do a smooth saddle gait. Fox trotters are no different. In fact, I’ve had guys who field trial tell me they teach their fox trotters to do a run walk because they prefer that to a fox trot.
Recently I went down the rabbit hole of going into the new All Breed Pedigree database beta version. Just looking at two of my horses, Ebony’s Dusty Lad and MTM Hit Up Chrome (both registered fox trotters), they are descendants of foundation walking horses. They also have several walkers in their lineage who were double registered with both TWHBEA and MFTHBA. In fact, some of those double registered Tennessee Walkers produced more registered fox trotter offspring than they did walkers.
Fox trotters also carry influence from other breeds such as gaited curlies like Curly Jim and Saddlebred bloodlines. You will see many of these fox trotters have ancestors who were double registered with ABC, MFTHBA and TWHBEA. I think this only backs up my argument that these horses all do the same gaits; it is literally in their pedigrees!
Can a Tennessee Walker run?
The set up for this question was this: Say you were riding down a trail in the mountains and you and your horse came up on a big bear. The horse spooks and runs away. Will it gait away or will it actually run away?
I thought this was a fun, hypothetical question and one I had never heard before. My answer was: it depends on the horse! A racking horse will probably just rack away as fast as he can. Ones that are more inclined to perform a gallop will do so. Even Steeve’s big TWH gelding can gallop, as ungainly as it is, but I still think if Tiberius were packing Steeve that he would stick to his gait.
We have bumped bears out in the wilderness and not once has any of our horses tried to bolt or run away. There are lots of factors in these experiences, like how far away we were, how much noise we were making and which way the wind was blowing greatly impacted the behaviours of the bear and the horse.
I get many complaints on my Youtube channel about the noise that the bells make when we are leading a pack string. My answer is always the same, I’d rather listen to the bells than have to deal with a bear. Twice in one year we bumped grizzlies and sent them running for the hills because of the racket of our bells, gear and horses.
This one was more of a comment than a question. The context was this; we were chatting about a TWH that was trotty and I commented that I had some decent experience working with trotty horses and felt confident that I could get some gait out of the horse. This person’s response was, “oh that’s right, because you have Missouri Fox Trotters.”
Now I know this person didn’t mean anything by this comment. In fact, it makes sense. A fox trot is the only diagonal easy gait there is. The horse is essentially trotting in the front and walking in the back. It has a distinctive “hunk of meat and two potatoes” beat.
My fox trotters are just like my walkers, they are 18 speed bikes. They can pace, walk, trot, flat walk, run walk, fox trot, rack, etc. Magnus prefers a saddle rack over any other gait, although he can also perform a spectacular running walk. He doesn’t fox trot, even though his preferred gait at the start of his saddle career was indeed a hard trot, he just never offered that gait.
When all my horses are mixed together, I bet anyone who doesn’t know them would be hard pressed to tell the fox trotters apart from the walkers.
The truth is, most of my experience with gaited horses who like to trot under saddle is with walkers, and it’s purely a numbers game here. Much of my career has been with walkers, the fox trotters are a relatively new addition in comparison.
What is your favourite breed of gaited horse?
When I was asked this question, we were sitting around a campfire with a bunch of cowboys, some of whom rode gaited horses, specifically Missouri Fox Trotters. I had been riding a single footer that weekend and Steeve was riding a walker. I can’t remember exactly what my answer was, but it was certainly more technical and wordier than it should have been. I have often thought if I could reword my answer, it would be this: My favourite breed of gaited horses are the smooth ones. It’s as simple as that.
This one was also more of a comment than a question. This came from a breeder of fox trotters
. She told me that fox trotters were like the Labradors of the gaited horse world, while walkers were more comparable to Arabians.
Steeve and I have chuckled about this one for years, because in fact I would say it is the opposite. I also believe my friend Rick would agree. Maybe it’s just the bloodlines, who knows. My walkers tend to be more Heritage bloodlines or old Canadian bloodlines. The few that do have performance horse breeding are indeed quite spicy and forward.
As for the fox trotters, I have found that they can be a bit complicated. Many of mine came from a situation of neglect and starvation, and maybe that had an impact on them. Magnus requires a user manual, as does Mazakeen. I’d recommend to hold on tight for her first ride of the year. After that she generally simmers down and can be quite handy. On the flip side, we had a gray fox trotter mare from the same situation who was very quiet and forgiving.
I have started three horses under saddle from the breeder who made this particular comment. Two were beautiful gray geldings, and boy were they ever wild at the start. Steeve had just put up the wooden addition to our round pen that year and thank goodness he did, because those boys tried to crawl over the top of the round pen. They would rear when tied at the patience pole. And yet, after a week of consistent handling on the patience pole and in the round pen, they both became very dependable, very beautifully gaited horses. At the end of 60 days we were riding them all over the pastures and doing obstacles in the arena.
The mare from this same breeder was very easy to start. Her quirks came after. She did not suffer fools gladly. If she figured she knew more than you, then she would just take care of herself, much to her human’s dismay. It didn’t take much to show her you could take care of her, and once you did, she became the definition of “bombproof”.
In comparison, our walkers seem to be very simple to start, and any problems that arise during training are solved easily (generally speaking, of course). The fox trotters seem to have some interesting things to work around before you get to them being dependable, and the journey is definitely worth it.
Magnus has turned out to be my go-to horse for most things, especially now that Bloom is retired. One time in particular, we were traveling back to camp along Indian Trail. The blow downs were really bad that year and progress was slow and halting. There were lots of young trees bowed over the trail, I called them sweepers. You could sweep them forward and push through them, then they would sweep back and take out the rider behind. Sometimes there would be only a foot or two over the trail, and I would lean to the right to avoid “sweeping” the tree.
Well, my saddle apparently had become very loose and as I leaned to the right, so did my tack. I was very stuck. My tack was too far gone to the right for me to try to pull it to the left using my weight. Which meant I couldn’t get off on the left. On the left there was level footing to land on, but the right was a dramatic slope down the mountainside. It wasn’t a cliff, but it made my dismount about a foot or so lower than it would have been on the other side.
Meanwhile, Steeve and Rick continued down the trail, completely oblivious. Thankfully, Alyssa was behind me. Magnus didn’t move an inch, even though his best friend in the whole world (Tiberius) had disappeared around a bend. Meanwhile, I’m trying to swing my leg over my slicker and saddle bags, which was a feat in and of itself. Then my shirt caught the horn as I lowered myself down. My tip toes barely touched the ground, it was so far down.
I struggled with my shirt, cursing Steeve for leaving me behind (even though he had no idea of my predicament), cursing everything, when it finally came off the horn and my feet planted on solid ground. My saddle and gear was so twisted, I couldn’t get the cinch undone without losing my saddle. Alyssa and I decided to heave the whole thing over to the left together, which thankfully worked.
When we caught up, Rick was using the hand saw on a downed tree. Steeve looked at us and asked, “what took you girls so long?”
Does my gaited horse need a gaited saddle?
No. It needs a well-fitting saddle just like any other horse, but it does not have to be “gaited”.
I ride in a gaited saddle and have done so for 15 years, and it is just my preference. I started in an Imus, moved to a Walk n’Style and now am in a Circle Y Trail Gaiter. I prefer these saddles because they are very light, 25lbs on the dot. They are also designed for long hours in the saddle so they usually come with some gel cushion. I’ve had good luck with them also fitting most of my horses.
Steeve has two saddles; he has a wade tree roping saddle and a Circle Y Alabama Gaited Saddle. He prefers his wade when he is riding young horses, or horses he doesn’t know, because it has bucking roles. He can lock his knees into these rolls to help keep him in the saddle. Our walkers don’t really buck, but the rolls can be helpful for spooks, spins, things like that. This saddle is also handy when ponying horses or ski-joring, anything that puts a lot of weight or strain on the saddle. It is built to work and can take strain that a trail saddle just isn’t designed to take.
Steeve prefers to use his gaited saddle on his well broke horses. It sits him further back than his wade and has a gel seat. It is also about 25lbs lighter than the wade as well. It is a great saddle for covering miles in comfort.
I have met a lot of interesting people over the years and the tack they ride their gaited horses in differs just as much as the people do. I have one client who always rides bareback and has a bareback pad for her husband or friends when they ride with her. Another client rides in a dressage saddle. Our friends that we ride in the mountains with all use slick fork saddles of different makes. None of these are “gaited” saddles.
So, you see it isn’t a one size fits all answer, and shame on anyone who suggests it is otherwise. A good fitting saddle is all a horse needs, gaited or not.
Now there is one little trick that Steeve and I learned a few years back, that made a world of difference with our saddles. Three-point rigging is the best way to saddle up a gaited horse in a western style saddle. It helps get the cinch out of their armpits and the saddle back off their shoulders, giving the horse lots of room to stretch out. This will almost entirely eliminate cinch galls as well. Steeve even found a way to modify his wade saddle so he can do the girth up three-point style.
Getting into horses must be very daunting these days. With all the opinions, strong and otherwise, many of them contradicting each other, not to mention the abundance of information available online. Horse myths that we were raised to believe in, like always saddle from the left, always mount from the left, are everywhere. Steeve was the first person I met who ever questioned why we do things certain ways. I had never questioned these things, it’s just what you do. He’s right to question them though, and he truly wants to know “why”.
I don’t have the answer as to why we were brought up to only mount from the left, or only to saddle from the left. I can tell you though, around our ranch, we certainly don’t abide by it and our horses are fine.
Steeve and I typically always saddle from the right when our horses are tied up in the barn aisle. It is easier to swing the saddle on the right side of the horse when your cinch and breast collar are hanging from the right side of the saddle. When leaving our tack room with a saddle in hand, saddling from the right eliminates the need to walk behind and around the horse. We’re lazy.
We also teach our horses to get on and off from both sides, and they learn this right from the get go. The first time they have someone on their back, that person slides off on the left, slides off on the right, slides over their rump.
I never would have thought in a million years that people would ask me for advice. I’m just someone who loves to ride and happens to be extremely passionate about my breeds of choice. Living in Quarter Horse country can bring up a lot of questions and funny looks when people ask what I do with my horses and what kind I have.
When we first moved to Viking and met our new vets, they didn’t even bother to ask what breed. The tech just wrote down Quarter Horse and I had to correct her. They didn’t even have Tennessee Walker in their database. Everyone around here ropes or runs barrels, and when I tell them what we do, usually the first thing they ask is, “why would you do that?”.
The answer to that question is akin to why do I breathe? Because I have to. Because I have this innate drive to ride and explore, to go further than before, to be with my horses, to experience these amazing places from their backs. Something inside me drives me to do this. It’s as simple as that.
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