It is the oft published, seldom stated, and rarely heard goal of Dressage to maintain the purity and clarity of the gaits, sometimes called paces, of a riding horse. Realizing that hereditary conformation dictates and limits the qualities of motion of our horses, it is the goal of Dressage horse breeders, groundskeepers, handlers, grooms, riders, trainers, farriers, veterinarians, physiotherapists, competition judges…so easy to forget…to maintain, all too often to restore, horses innate qualities of motion.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this Vimeo is worth a gazillion words. You can stop-motion any frame and see an excellent illustration of the masters’ definitions of walk, trot, or canter. The limitation of internet transmission of digital video is, of course, the number of frames per second captured and then transmitted. So the qualities of motion perceived by the eye on this screen, as compared to seeing a horses’ motion in realtime, are not quite authentic, but as close as we can get without having been there.

The subject is a 5 year old German-bred gelding who was won at auction in December 2012, by a British buyer. (oh yes, in spite of being named “Her Heart,” Sa Coeur is a gelding.

Sa Coeur is noted to have been awarded a 10 (ten!) for walk, 9.6 for trot, and 8.8 for canter in by Young Horse judges.

Of course, exemplification of the Training Scale is here, too. So you may want to watch…several times.

Wherever we are, we can think globally, and act locally.

Many thanks to Astrid Appel, through Eurodressage, for bringing this to our attention.