The horse in motion is the focus of gait study. When a horse moves, it must be in one gait or another. Over the next several issues, we will look in detail at all the gaits that horses commonly use to get from point “A” to point “B”.

There will be quite a few surprises — for example, that walk, trot and canter are not the only gaits. Different gaits represent different coordinations of the horse’s limbs. If we survey horse breeds worldwide, seven gaits — seven such coordinations, or they can be thought of as neuromuscular patterns — stand out as most important and most likely to be encountered by farriers.

As always, hoof strike, roll-through and breakover, weight-bearing and the concussion associated with it, are top concerns for farriers because they shape hoof growth and form. They vary widely between individuals, but all of them are the product of the way the animal moves. My primary purpose in offering this series of articles is to teach you how to identify all the different gaits and…