Canter- Papa's Royal Delight- Tennessee Walking Horse

[EmilyLovesTWH]

Wonderful horse... Go barefoot! Only complaint is that he sticks his nose out while cantering.... But it looks very nice.

[raprhowe]

Many people believe in 'framing' a horse's head at gait. I believe in teaching the horse to find and be responsible for his own gait and a big part of that is not framing.

Papa is using the weight of his head and neck to help loft himself upward for the slower cantering motion. To me this is much preferable to a framed horse that stays flat and fast (and often 4 beat) in their canter. I realize its a matter of preference, but I prefer freeing the head.

[RitsBitsCracker]

Just beautiful. Thank you for showing a true and correct TWH canter. Makes me happy. :)

[LoveMickeyOoO]

I'm glad to see a natural gate instead of those stupid ones where the horses look like they're trying to kick something in front of them. I know this sounds bad, but there are times I want to shoot those horses and put them out of thier misery and then beat the rider and trainer to death for making that horse do that.

He's a beautiful TWH though, he does that canter well too. Stunning and gorgeous animal, deserves every blue ribbon he's got I think.

[laminingirl]

Is your horse still standing at stud? He is beautiful. We do nothing but barefoot and my trainer and myself are still hunting for the perfect stud.

[raprhowe]

Absolutely. Papa is just turning 11 next month and has many years ahead of him.

[MajiksGurl224]

i love to watch them canter! i think they are so pretty

[mackado31]

ha very nice reminds me of my walker mare

[hunterjumper626626]

do they always throw and nod their heads? srry, i dont know much about walkers....thanks =)

[FuzzyNavel22]

TWH are supposed to bob their heads when they move...it's part of their natural movement

[sasimljoelver]

no, not always. depends on the horse. not all the twh can even canter.

[ShadowAlchemy9393]

Wow.

My parents own Morgan horses, but NONE of them can canter like that!

[rid3emcowgurl]

@ShadowAlchemy9393 - thats cause Morgans are supposed to have a PRETTY canter.

[potholecoulee]

I make lots of comments on the bad horses on the web but your is truly superior. I wish everyone would have a look.

[DawnInTexas]

Now, this is what a REAL Tennessee Walking Horse looks like!

[rodeoangel14]

yah my walker don't do that......he's ruff and tumble with the best of em.haha, but seriously he don't do that he does gaming so it's like an entirely different world(=

[ringer98]

I am adding a vid on my horse!

[ringer98]

thanks il go check it out!

[ringer98]

That looks just like dressage i own a TWH his name is ringer i can not get him to do that i can only get him to gallop! or do a fast walk!

[raprhowe]

Stop in at Dr. Deb Bennett's website: Equine Studies Institute and read a wonderful post she made recently regarding the balanced canter. She says that a "runaway" canter is evidence of an unbalanced horse and one that is probably unbalanced at all gaits. She gives excellent exercises to work on. Equinestudies. org and go to the forums under "Cantering Slow"

[bullw]

Very good advice...her Ranger article is a good read, as well.

[Walkthatway]

It looks beautiful! This is not your trail canter.. takes a skilled horse and rider.

[randombucknellian]

Seems to me that the head bobbing deepens the hollow in the back, keeping the rider at that lower elevation and easing up on the forward and upward motion of the rider in the canter. That's just what I've noticed, tell me if I'm wrong...

[raprhowe]

I think the effort to loft the front of the body upward allows them to keep their hindquarters closer to with the ground, and probably becomes much more energy efficient not to have to loft the backend and the rider's weight. They use front body mass to lift just enough to allow the back legs to come forward and reach beneath. It is a very sweet ride and very easy on the horse. Once they learn to carry themselves this way, they are very easy to get into canter.

[bullw]

Go Papa! Yeah...

[raprhowe]

Try watching a good dressage horse perform a pirouette; that is the *ultimate* collected canter. Horses use their head and neck as their only counterbalance to drive the backend push, shift their weight and help them lift their front weight. Young geldings at play will have this same movement in order to lift up at each other. Horses have an entirely different skeletal structure than humans, so it's best not to compare apples and oranges. It's totally natural for a horse.

[cocobirdi]

hmm.... the head bob on these horses looks very uncomfortable. with them throwing their heads like that, they're throwing their spine around so much... how is that nice and collected? it looks awkward.

[pawprintzzzz]

Is this in Nebraska? I swear I have seen this lady and horse at the last couple Nebraska Horse Expos

[raprhowe]

You have, and yes, this particular video was from the Nebraska horse expo. This year Papa also participated in a couple of the Liz Graves clinics at that expo. He also can be seen at the Missouri expo, and the Kansas EquiFest.

[AmericanCowgirl09]

his head moves alot is that even right? I have a I have TWH and when we canter i never notice so much head movement

[raprhowe]

Many TWH will have a more western "lope" rather than the collected, rocking chair canter. Most can be trained to slow down and elevate into this canter. The lope is a bit faster, without as much collection and lift. I have many clips of different TWH that canter in this collected, elevated manner and use their head/neck in just this way.

[calvinGirl90]

Show horses have more head nod. All gaited horses do that. but some walkers prefer to tuck there heads under and srahc there next. It makes a smoother gait.

[lizzielovebeamer]

yeah, same here. i canter my TWH and it's not like that!