Old vs Modern Foxtrot Gait

Watch 5 world champion foxtrotters gaiting in the 1960's and compare their gaits to a modern champion foxtrotter......... Which one would you prefer to ride? Maybe you can see why we so avidly promote the "Old Style" gaiting horses! From the 1940's through the 1960's the Missouri Foxtrotting Horse was judged by how comfortable a ride the horse could give, in addition to it's good mind, endurance & athletic body etc... But through the years the quality of ride has become less important to many than the animation and big movement for the show ring. This has made many people turn away from the breed and look for other kinds of horses. I hope this video will help prevent folks looking elsewhere as they realize that there are still many ranches raising, breeding and training their horse to gait like the smooth riding old foundation horses...and my love for this amazing breed of horse compels me to share how wonderful they can be with everyone! Alma DeMille www.DeMilleFoxtrotters.com

[@jmoore11199]

You will notice that there is a least a bit of a head nod in each of these horses, although not as animated and artificial as it is today. There is also a diagonal component to the gait although the reach is not as great. These horses were smooth because there was more of a a time period between when the front foot set down before the back diagonal foot set down than there is in the Performance arena at Ava. However, a lateral stepping pace (or amble) with no head nod is not a foxtrot - new or old style.

[@DeMilleFamilyGaitedHorseRanch]

This is true. Although often, when teaching a foxtrotting horse to gait its smoothest, you may want to restrict the head nod at first to help horses get into correct posture, by collecting to bend at the poll, engage the rear end to prevent a heavy forehand carriage etc. then as the horse learns to glide along in perfect balance you let them have a loose rein and nod their head again, in timing with each rear hoof hitting the ground. The head nod is a good thing as it acts like a cantilever to provide smoothness to the saddle seat, when done like Zane Grey and Gold Bug in the video, but when over exaggerated like is common in the shows today, it reduces the quality of the ride by shaking the saddle seat front to back excessively. I love a good foxtrot gait, when it's smooth as glass to ride but often find horses that are more comfortable doing a running walk, Indian shuffle, stepping pace, rack or other nice quality gait. I personally take each horse I'm training and experiment with them to do all the gaits they have the ability to perform and then whichever one each individual horse does the most comfortably for the rider and with the most natural movement, which means it will be their best endurance gait, I encourage them to ride in. Some TWH horses foxtrot better than they run walk and many MFT horses run walk or rack better than they foxtrot, and the same principle goes for Rocky Mtn, Spotted Saddle Horses, and all the other gaited breeds I work with. Although a good Old Style foxtrot is my favorite gait for most riding conditions I personally ride in, I really enjoy all the wonderful gaits gaited horses can do. So I encourage horses, regardless what breed their registration papers are, to do whatever gaits they do the best. With several thousand gaited horse clients and students around the world to form my opinion from, I'd say that 99% of people just want the most comfortable gaits they can get from their horses, regardless how "correct" it is for the specific breed. There's my 2 cents worth. PS: I've seen a lot of your videos, Julie, and enjoy your quality teaching and horsemanship. Keep up the good work! :)

[@janetwoods1812]

overly animated gaits will destroy the breed...just look at the TWH...sigh...

[@DeMilleFamilyGaitedHorseRanch]

A few folks mentioned that I only show one example of a modern show gait, and that's not fair... I guess I figured everyone sees numerous examples of them all the time but few see the old style gaits so that's what I focused on. Here's a couple links to other shows.... watch all the way through and see how they push the horses for animation and decrease the comfort of the ride. Some may say it would be boring to show horses going smooth, but if the point of a show is to show the world what our horses do in order to promote them and get more people interested in riding foxtrotters, then which do YOU think will convert people to this breed of horse? No brainer, huh? Follow these two links for more modern show examples: ua-cam.com/video/V81YHtpsraU/v-deo.html & ua-cam.com/video/KvLeBN0G5Wg/v-deo.html