At the clinic in Cambridge, Iowa a few years ago 3 Peruvian Paso horses and their owners took part. This may not be unusual for many other clinicians, but in Australia gaited horses of any kind are unusual and cause for interest. I have had limited experience in the past with a few Paso Fino, Peruvian Paso, Rocky Mountain, Tennessee Walker, and Fox Trotter horses. Maybe this is more experience than a lot of trainers have in Australia, but it is not enough to understand their gaits and the traditions of training methods used by those who specialize in working with them.
However, what I do know is that horses are horses.
Two of the Peruvian Pasos I worked with had been trained in a traditional Peruvian manner for the show ring. The owners used traditional Peruvian gear, which comprised a spade bit (to create a head carriage), used one-handed and a quirky saddle based on traditional Baroque saddle design. The third horse was worked in a snaffle bit and western saddle.
What was easily apparent to everybody, including the owners was that the gaited movement of the traditionally trained horses was produced by tension. The horses ran on adrenaline. There was nothing soft or relaxed in the way they moved. I am told that trainers want this in their show horses because it looks impressive to those who like the tradition.
I asked the owners of the two traditionally trained Peruvian horses did they know their horses were not Peruvian Paso horses. There was a look of shock on their faces as if I was about to tell them they had been duped and had paid a large sum of money for two pit ponies. I said, “You’ve got two trail horses, who happen to have Peruvian bloodlines. They are not Peruvian horses that go on trail rides.”
This is an important distinction. Instead of training them like gaited horses, they needed to be trained as you would want for any trail-riding horses.
Every horse is a horse. In my mind, this is impressive enough without having to assign royal breeding to it. But it also means that everything that I want to offer as a basic education to a trail horse is the same thing I want to offer to a racehorse, dressage horse, roping horse, carriage horse, polo horse, barrel racing horse, or a gaited show horse.
From the day a young horse becomes rideable, many people start training for a specialized discipline. Some even start their specialized training before they are started under saddle – such as Arabian show horses before they are even under saddle!
Racehorses go from the breaker to pre-training to the track and are racing without ever learning to be riding horses. How many competition dressage stars ever see a trail or know how to step around to open gates? How many reining horses know how to offer a relaxed forward trot? How many carriage horses know how to bend in the turns? How many eventing horses know how to be soft on the reins? You get my point.
In addition to the two Peruvian Paso horses that had nothing but experienced traditional training, there was another that had been with my friend and exceptional trainer, Ellen Kealey for 3 months because the previous trainer was unable to stop it from bucking when ridden. It too had originally been trained in the traditional Peruvian style as the other two horses at the clinic. But Ellen had changed all that. Ellen re-established the basics of being a happy riding horse.
I was glad everybody got to see Ellen’s horse working. It was able to walk, gait, and canter quietly and relaxed. There was a level of okay-ness inside Ellen’s horse that is rarely (if ever) seen among the more highly-strung gaited horses. It was proof to everybody at the clinic that riding horses are riding horses first and whatever else we want them to be comes later.
The owners of the traditionally trained Peruvian horses were wonderful students. Their passion for their horses and their interest in helping their Peruvian Paso geldings be calm and comfortable riding horses gave me a lot of hope for the future of those horses. It was a pleasure to work with such people who are searching for something better.
Every horse is a horse. They are not showjumpers or carriage horses or plough horses or gaited horses. Every horse is a horse and that should be good enough.
At the clinic, I rode one of the Peruvian Paso horses trained by Ellen Kealey.