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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 824
 
Location: Duvall, WA | Are there any particular conformational traits that would give a horse smooth gaits? Or make him teeth-jarring rough? My vet has made a few comments about short pasterns or backs but I see other horses with those that have smooth gaits. If you are looking at a youngster, anything you pay particular attention to?  |
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  Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
 
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | shoulder angle is huge. English horses have this smooth sweepy gait and it is because they are bred to have a long shoulder to give them reach as well as no knee action. Pastern length is a big one too. But too long and you get weakness. |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | wyoming barrel racer - 2016-09-08 10:04 PM shoulder angle is huge. English horses have this smooth sweepy gait and it is because they are bred to have a long shoulder to give them reach as well as no knee action. Pastern length is a big one too. But too long and you get weakness.
Yept...^^^^^  |
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 Saint Stacey
| Yep. Shoulder angle and length. An upright shoulder makes for a longer back which means the ideal 2:1 underline/back ratio is off. It causes a horse to lack reach upfront so the tend to stab the ground more. A horse with an upright shoulder will have the withers sitting right over where the cinch goes. A correctly angled shoulder has those withers sitting a ways behind where the cinch goes.
Short, upright pasterns also cause a choppy gait.
Short, upright pasterns are a deal breaker for me. Those horses tend to have more severe navicular type symptoms than correct pasterns. |
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Miracle in the Making
Posts: 4013
| i have always been told and for me true how much a hind legs stride over front print is how smooth and stride
works for me |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 705
Location: Weatherford, TX | vjls - 2016-09-09 8:39 AM i have always been told and for me true how much a hind legs stride over front print is how smooth and stride
works for me
Ditto. |
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 Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | Gator Bug - 2016-09-09 7:00 AM vjls - 2016-09-09 8:39 AM i have always been told and for me true how much a hind legs stride over front print is how smooth and stride
works for me Ditto.
For me that's always indicated speed (and has held true in my experience). I will say that I owned some sort of Arabian/QH/pony cross of some sort and he had pretty long pasterns and riding him was like riding on a cloud. But I wouldn't seek out long pasterns for the weakness factor. |
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
| hammer_time - 2016-09-09 9:09 AM
Gator Bug - 2016-09-09 7:00 AM vjls - 2016-09-09 8:39 AM i have always been told and for me true how much a hind legs stride over front print is how smooth and stride
works for me Ditto.
I have long backed horses that were smooth and short backed horses that were smooth. I have also had horses that overstepped with the back feet and ones that didn't that were smooth. The only thing that I can think of that they had in common were longer pasterns and long shoulders. I don't mean really long pasterns, but longish pasterns. |
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Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | GLP - 2016-09-09 8:12 AM hammer_time - 2016-09-09 9:09 AM Gator Bug - 2016-09-09 7:00 AM vjls - 2016-09-09 8:39 AM i have always been told and for me true how much a hind legs stride over front print is how smooth and stride
works for me Ditto. I have long backed horses that were smooth and short backed horses that were smooth. I have also had horses that overstepped with the back feet and ones that didn't that were smooth. The only thing that I can think of that they had in common were longer pasterns and long shoulders. I don't mean really long pasterns, but longish pasterns.
This is pretty much it. My HUS horse is very short backed. I actually bought him for jumping later. But he has a 10 trot. I knew very little about english horse conformation when I bought him, wanted more substance than most had, but I knew even less about bloodlines. So I lucked out is all. Some are very long backed, just long over all and have just as smooth of movement. I swear he is the slowest thing you have ever seen and he doesn't reach over his front print at all. Lands about perfect in it. Of course he might if he was conviced to go fast enough, but then it might scare him and he would want to wear a helmet. |
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