"Easy-Gaited Horses" offers a wonderful introduction to the world of easy-gaited pleasure horses and provides expert advice for the serious rider. This practical and well written guide will enhance your relationship with your gaited horse, no matter what your level of riding experience.  

With an emphasis on pleasure riding rather than competition, "Easy-Gaited Horses" offers a progressive training program that can be applied to a green horse, to an older horse that has become sour or stiff or to an experienced horse that could use some fine-tuning. The author's approach stresses gentle, humane training using the principles of good horsemanship. Starting with sections such as "Before You Ride" and "Groundwork", Ziegler focuses on the whole horse, not just the gaits. She then provides detailed descriptions of the various 
gaits, accompanied by clear illustrations and charts of hoof patterns as well as notes on how a particular gait looks and feels to the rider. Her emphasis  on fitness, suppleness and responsiveness makes sense for any pleasure or trail mount. In each chapter, Ziegler lays out a series of training tips, groundwork and exercises that are sure to benefit both horse and rider.  

With these basics in place, the author provides separate chapters on the ordinary walk, the flat walk, the stepping pace and the more distinct gaits such as the fox trot, running walk and rack. The gait terminology specific to the latin American breeds such as the Peruvian Paso, Paso Fino and Mangalarga Marchador is explained. Those less familiar with with gaited horses will learn lots of new vocabulary and 
technical terminology. For example, the Peruvian Paso horse is said to have a "wide thread" if he can perform the same gait at different speeds and a "narrow thread" if he can do the gait only at one speed. An appendix provides the names of different gaits around the world as well as a list of gaited breeds.  

For the serious rider, this book is full of detailed, technical information about the mechanics of the various gaits, the physical differences between gaited and non-gaited horses, and the many different options available for bits, bridles and saddles. The author discusses how conformation affects a gaited horse, the importance of muscle tone in achieving a correct gait, and the challenge of training a horse to perform a more comfortable gait than the pace. 

Lee Ziegler has been riding and training gaited horses for  
30 years, giving clinics on gaited riding throughout the  
United States and Germany. A respected advocate of  
good horsemanship, she writes on gaited horses for  
many publications. She has held a judges card since 1983 and has judged gaited breeds in numerous multi-breed shows. She now lives in Colorado.