Easy-gaited Horses: Gentle, humane methods for training and riding gaited pleasure horses - Hardcover

Ziegler, Lee

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1580175635 ISBN 13: 9781580175630

Publisher: Storey Books, 2005

Synopsis

For more than 30 years, Lee Ziegler has been one of the foremost advocates of gaited horses in North America and Europe. Through her writing and in her clinics, she has introduced countless riders to the pleasures of riding a horse that is calm, obedient, relaxed, alert, sure-footed, easily maneuvered, and consistent in his gait.

Now, in Easy-Gaited Horses, Ziegler offers a comprehensive guide to riding and training gaited pleasure horses. Her training methods are gentle and humane and produce a gaited horse that can be ridden in his gait barefoot, trimmed to his natural angles, with a mild bit, or even without one.

Ziegler begins by defining various types of gaits, explaining how they look to an observer and how they feel to the rider. Next, adopting a whole-body approach to training, she reveals the importance of understanding equine anatomy. She then discusses how to introduce the horse to a variety of gaits: the ordinary walk, the flat walk, the fox trot, the running walk, the saddle rack, and the canter. She explains how to ride a multi-gaited horse, how to handle gait problems, how to retrain an easy-gaited show horse for pleasure riding, how to train gaited foals and colts, and how to prepare before taking a young horse on his first ride.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Discover the comfort of easy gaits!

It's easy to fall in love with gaited horses, says author Lee Ziegler, and not just because they tend to be handsome animals with good dispositions. More important, their special gaits are comfortable to ride over long distances (unlike the jarring trot), making them a trail rider's dream come true.

Whether it's the running walk of the Tennessee Walker, the fox trot of the Missouri Fox Trotter, the Rocky Mountain Horse's saddle gait, the Icelandic Horse's tolt, the Paso Fino's largo, or the Peruvian Paso's sobreandando, each easy gait can be smooth and delightful to experience.

Riding and training one of these horses, however, may be like changing from a one-gear pedal bicycle to a 20-speed model. Easy-gaited horses are complex, multi-geared individuals and present unique challenges for a horse owner who is more familiar with the simple walk, trot, and canter. Ziegler guides you through the fine points of developing and maintaining these extra gaits, using humane training methods that stress good horsemanship.

The book includes:

* Charts comparing the different gaits

* Best equipment for easy-gaited horses

* Ground exercises to develop coordination, flexibility, and trust

* Solutions to common gait problems

* Mounted exercises to improve the easy gaits

* Sample lesson plans

Edition details

• Publisher: Storey Books
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1580175635
• ISBN 13: 9781580175630
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Rissanen JoAnna
• Number of pages: 247