I board my horse, and one of the horses in his pasture looks to me like he could be a gaited breed, and when he walks, he moves with both legs on the same side going forward at the same time. Is this a gait? Oh, and I got to ride a Fox Trotter mare the other night, it was invigorating.

I was told you can tell trotters from gaiters at an early age by just that way, if both legs on the same side are moving before the other side chances are excellent that he will gait. Both legs on the same side hitting the ground at the same time is called a pace.

If they move at the exact same time, and so therefore he has a 2 beat gait, it's a pace. If they're not the exact same time but very close, it's probably a stepping pace. If they're further apart (footfalls) it could be a rack, or singlefoot.

Jessi

wow, i'm sort of familiar with pacers such as Standardbreds, but I didn't know they could do it at such a slow speed! I wonder what it's like to ride.

If it's an all out pace...it SUCKS! You can't post or sit. Any of the other-stepping pace, single-foot, can be nice. Pacing is not nice to ride in any way. Im pretty sure harness racing is the only place it's enjoyed. Lots of gaited horses will pace in the pasture and sometimes under saddle if they're not trained or being ridden correctly, don't like the bit, aren't shod right, etc.

Pacing tends to be really rough and is discouraged in most gaiting breeds. It's a lot worse than a rough trot.

Ditto, ditto, and ditto
One of my TWH's is a hard lateral pacer in the pasture, but does an extremely smooth Stepping Pace when I ride him.

However, every once in a great while, he will slip into his pasture lateral pace and it likes to jar my teeth loose - lollol I have to bring him back down to a walk and start over again - lol lol

Yes, pacing is discouraged amongst the gaited breeds. I am so glad I was "gait stupid" when I bought that Step-Pacer 17+ years ago. I call Duke my Stepford Horse because never once in his life has he made a mistake. Whether it's butt sliding down a hill, riding down the state highway and some fool let his Jake Brake off in Duke's ear, showing off in a parade, or coming eyeball-to-eyeball with a male llama looking for a fight. You name it and Duke's "handled it" without much help from me

My point to the outburst in the last paragraph is if you've found yourself a Stepford horse, don't pass him up if he paces. While it's doubtful he can be taught to hold a running walk, he can probably be taught to rack or Step-pace, both of which are very tolerable, especially if it's a horse that will save your butt more often than you save his

Also pacing is easier than gaiting. I have a 23 yr. old TWH gelding who I love dearly. But he has a truly teeth jarring pace. I worked him out of it one time but now as he is rarely ridden didn't see any sense in putting him through it again. My DIL rides him occasionally but she don't know any better. (grin)I rescued him 4 yrs. ago and am fairly sure he was ridden padded. They like them to pace.
Carmen

Riding a pace is a lot like riding a cement mixer...
You can't sit, you can't post and you feel like you're being scrambled. HOWEVER....the faster the pace, the easier it is to ride. Pacing is easier for the horse and some horses will switch to a pace if they are carrying a lot of weight. If your gaited horse breaks into a pace, you stop him and make him start again.

Technically it's considered a pace when a horse moves lateral feet at the same time...it's considered 'cheating' by some people though, I think it is really smooth on a pacing horse though!Lol!

teh best way forme to tell gaited is to watch at a walk.
watch where the front foot hits the ground, then watch where the back foot hit in comparison to that front hit. there should be an over stride of the back foot. most TWH will do this in the pasture naturally. they will also nod their head with the beats.