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movement is just as deeply ingrained into the brain as those necessary
for breathing, sucking, chewing, coughing, defecating or any of the dozens of
other activities that it will perform on its first day of life. All
that is needed is a little bit of nourishment and a small amount of
strengthening of the muscles, and the foal will be able to run almost as fast
as a mature horse. God, in His wisdom, has designed a genetic
system that gives each newborn, of each species, almost everything that it
needs to ensure its survival.
In people, walking is
not necessary at birth so all we get is a healthy set of lungs to attract
our mother's attention. We have to learn walking later on, so
walking is developmental in
humans. In most animals it is genetic because they have to be able to
escape predators within minutes of birth. All characteristics of
every form of life on earth are either genetic, developmental or environmental,
and the genetic nature of gait has been proven by every breeder who
has ever mated two horses to produce a foal. The only
time in a horse's life when you can observe the pure genetics of
gait is on the day the foal is born.
Very soon, developmental and environmental factors begin to influence that
genetic ability and sometimes it becomes completely obscured, but the basic
patterns of gait programmed into the horse's brain are never far below the
surface. They are always there to be influenced by man or nature,
and it is the combination of these factors that produce the fascinating study
that gaited horse people are involved in.
OK, with that discussion behind us, let's start looking for breeding
stock. If you are willing to use extreme methods of squaring up your
horses (pads, chains, scootin' juice, alligator clips…), you do not need
to bother to select for horses with gait programmed into their brains.
All you need is to select for is bone structure and you can skip the rest of
this article. But if you want to produce horses that have the ability to
hold an even gait at speed without benefit of any special training, shoeing or
gait modification device, then you need to be concerned with how well your
breeding stock holds their gait with an increase of speed. A strong
gaited horse that can rack, foxtrot, run walk or stepping pace without breaking at high
speed is a very valuable
addition to the breeding program. This is the most important aspect of a
breeding program for natural gait and you must have it before you can
succeed. If your breeding stock consists of broken down padded horses
that have good conformation of movement and no ability to hold an even gait at
speed, you could always start a
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