Usual and Unusual Gaits of the Horse Quiz

Answer: true

While a walk averages speeds of 2-4 miles per hour, the gallop can reach speeds of 25 miles per hour and up. The Thoroughbred is best known for its gallop.

Answer: true

While the trot is a two-beated gait in which the diagonal legs move together, the pace is a two-beated gait in which the legs on the same side move together. The Standardbred is known as a pacer and a trotter.

Answer: Canter

The slow gait is a four-beat gait, as is the rack. The American Saddlebred is born knowing one or both of those gaits. Training is just needed to perfect them.

Answer: Tolt

The Nordic breed which preforms the tolt naturally is the Icelandic Horse. There are several other horse breeds that can rack, do the running walk and pace. The tolt is a form of the rack. A test to the purity and smoothness of the tolt is to have a glass of water in hand while riding the tolt. In a perfect version of the tolt, not a drop will be spilled.

Answer: Running Walk

The running walk is a natural gait to the Tennessee Walking Horse, however, it can be exaggerated by specialized shoeing and training. The running walk is a quick, four-beated gait. In it, the hind feet overstep the front feet by as much as 24 inches.

Answer: The Medium Gait

The paso corto is a four-beat lateral gait. It is the medium speed gait, with the paso fino being the slow gait, and the paso largo being the fast gait.

Answer: The Foxtrot

The foxtrot is known as a broken trot for this reason "a front hoof hits the ground a split second earlier than the opposite rear hoof, then a pause, then the same for the other diagonal pair of hoofs." From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_trot

The Missouri Foxtrotter is named after this distinctive gait. The foxtrot offers a ride with little to no bounce.

Answer: four

To the American Saddlebred, the rack can come naturally. One of the gaits of the five-gaited American Saddlebreds, it's a comfortable gait to sit to because unlike the trot, since it's a four-beated gait, the hooves each fall separately, so there is little to no jarring.

Answer: A lateral, four-beated gait

The slow gait is actually a slow version of the rack. It's one of the gaits of a five-gaited American Saddlebred, and it's also one of the easiest to sit to.

Answer: Lope

The canter and the lope are basically the same gait, just with a different name. To the Western world of riding, the lope is the slow, collected, three-beated gait. To the English world, the canter is the three-beated gait where speed can vary.