Gaits and movement
How a horse moves, what each gait is called, and the words for asking for one.
Canter
A three-beat gait: one hind, then a diagonal pair, then the leading foreleg, then a moment with everything in the air.
Collection
The horse carrying more weight behind, with shorter, higher steps and the same energy. Not a shorter neck pulled in by the hand.
Counter-canter
Cantering a curve on the outside lead deliberately, as a balance exercise. Not the same thing as being on the wrong lead by accident.
Cross-canter
Cantering on one lead in front and the other behind. It feels exactly as unbalanced as it sounds and is penalised everywhere.
Diagonal pair
A foreleg and the opposite hind leg, which move together at trot. Which one you rise with is what "the correct diagonal" means.
Extension
Lengthening the stride while keeping the same rhythm. Going faster is not the same thing, and is the usual mistake.
Flying change
Swapping canter leads in the moment of suspension, without breaking gait. A required manoeuvre in reining and a scored movement in dressage.
Flying pace
The two-beat racing gait of the Icelandic horse, both legs on one side moving together. Not every Icelandic can do it.
Gaited horse
A horse with an extra gait beyond walk, trot and canter — usually a smooth four-beat one it is born with rather than taught.
Gallop
The fastest gait, four beats, the canter opened up until the diagonal pair splits apart into two separate footfalls.
Half-halt
A brief ask that rebalances the horse without changing gait — hand, leg and seat at once, then given away again.
Half-pass
Moving forwards and sideways at once with the horse bent towards the direction of travel. A leg-yield bends the other way.
Impulsion
The push coming from the hindquarters — energy that goes forward and up rather than just faster. Judges write about it constantly.
Jog
The western trot, ridden slow and flat enough to sit to. Same footfall as a trot, asked for with far less push.
Lead
Which foreleg reaches furthest forward at canter. On a circle the horse should be on the inside lead, or it feels like it is about to fall in.
Leg-yield
Moving a horse sideways and forwards at once, body straight, crossing its legs. Usually the first lateral work a horse learns.
Lope
The western canter, slow and level. Judged on looking easy rather than on covering ground.
Pivot
Turning with one hind foot planted while the front end walks round it. The building block a reining spin is made of.
Rack
A fast, high-stepping four-beat gait, each foot landing separately. Flashy, and hard work for the horse to hold.
Rein-back
Asking a horse to walk backwards in straight diagonal pairs. Harder than it looks, and the first thing to fall apart when a horse is tense.
Rising trot
Standing and sitting in time with the trot, one beat up and one down, so the rider stops being thrown out of the saddle.
Running walk
A fast four-beat gait of the Tennessee Walking Horse, the hind foot overstepping the print the front foot left.
Shoulder-in
Travelling straight along the track with the forehand brought in off it, so the horse moves on three tracks instead of two.
Side-pass
Stepping directly sideways with no forward movement at all. A trail-class requirement, normally over a pole on the ground.
Simple change
Changing canter lead by coming back to walk or trot for a few strides first. The honest version, and the one taught before the flying change.
Sitting trot
Staying in the saddle through the trot instead of rising. Comfortable in a slow jog and an education in a big moving trot.
Stride
One complete cycle of a gait, from a given hoof landing to the same hoof landing again. The unit distances between fences are counted in.
Suspension
The moment in a gait when no hoof is on the ground. Present in trot, canter and gallop, and absent from the walk.
Tölt
The four-beat lateral gait of the Icelandic horse. Same footfall order as the walk, at the speed of a trot, and with no bounce to sit through.
Transition
A change from one gait or speed to another. Most of what a judge is actually watching happens in these, not in the gaits themselves.
Trot
A two-beat gait where diagonal pairs of legs move together, with a moment of suspension between. The gait that bounces a new rider.
Turn on the haunches
A turn where the hindquarters stay more or less in place and the forehand comes round them, with the horse still stepping forward.
Two-point
Riding out of the saddle with weight in both stirrups and the seat clear of the horse. The position for galloping and for jumping.
Walk
The slowest gait, four beats, with no moment where all four feet are off the ground. You can hear each hoof land separately.
Whoa
Stop, and mean it. In western riding it is a trained cue in its own right rather than a general noise at the horse.