Tension in the horse. If the horse is either tense and stiff because of nervousness, or simply stiff because of lack of being athletic and trained, it tends to go in pacy tölt. Also if the horse is ridden by a rider that is making it tense and stiff. Faults in the conformation of the horse. If the horse has a short neck, that is set low on the withers, has straight (vertical) shoulders, a stiff (straight) back, low withers and tall croup, a very sloping croup, all these things increase the tendency of pacy tölt or piggy-pace and make it more difficult to clean the tölt.
Dullness in the horse. If the horse is either very lazy, or ridden so very relaxed that it is halfway falling asleep, it has a tendency to go pacy tölt. The horse has to be a bit energetic, not sloppy, to tölt in perfect 4-beat.
The saddle. If the saddle pinches the horse, or lies on it's wither, thereby inhibiting total freedom in movement in the shoulderblades, the tölt has a tendency to get pacy.
Hard mouth. If the horse is unresponsive to the reins, it is more difficult to aid the horse with the reins. Do exersises to soften the mouth and the neck of the horse before starting tölt-training. Also if a horse puts its tongue over the bit, it can avoid the clues from the rider.
Starting. A trotty horse that is learning to tölt can often become pacy for a while, maybe for a month or so. Correct the horse if it does that for long distances. But if it is just for a few steps, remember that this is just a phase, and the horse will get more balance later, and more relaxation, and then tölt better.
What can be done to clean pacy tölt in icelandics, or teach piggy-pacers to tölt?
The first things we usually need are time and paitence. If the horse has been ridden in pacy tölt for a long time, it has to be retrained. Sometimes you find that by riding the horse right, you can fix this in a few rides, but more often you need longer time. The horse might be a natural tölter, but if it has been ridden pacy for a long time, the muscles and the mind of the horse are used to the pacy tölt, and need to be retrained to tölt clean again. Do not allow a young horse you are starting to pig-pace, teach it immediately to trot and walk, or it can get stuck in the pig-pace.
Collection. Teach the horse to walk collected. When it does that, with a soft mouth, try encouraging more speed (voice and legs), untill the horse can carry the collection up to the tölt. You even have to train this seperately, just the transition from walk to tölt in collection. Remember that collection in tölt does not mean the same as collection in dressage, look at pictures of a good tölter, the horse is moving freely and keeping it's balance, carrying it's head itself (you shouldn't be be carrying the head with the reins). The head should not be vertical, that is too much collection. You collect the horse to engage it's hind end, and get it to power itself forward and upwards. The horse should be on the bit. If you loose the collection, sometimes it is enough just to do fluffy movements with the legs and the hands, to engage the horse into proper carriage again. It also helps with some horses to lean forward for a few seconds, untill the beat is nearer to trot, then sit properly again. Sometimes you have to stop and do the collection at the walk again. Teaching the horse to back, and then walk collected and then go directly up to tölt also helps. Seek for true collection, so that the horse is subtle to your aids.
A tolting horse with too raised neck (over the bit) to tolt properly, resulting in an eve-neck. This horse needs to learn collection, and to engage it's behind, so the movements are fluid. This kind of "false raising" of the neck is a common fault by beginners or trainers that don't take the time to seek for true collection.
A pretty palomino, Oddur from Selfossi, in perfect collection, engaging it's behind (pushing itself forward with the "motor" in the hind legs). No eve-neck, no force, no struggle.
A very false collection. Avoid this.
Trot. If possible, a horse that does pacy tölt all the time, needs to learn to trot. Then their movements become more relaxed and free. When they are getting rather secure in the trot, and easy to trot, they can learn to tölt. Trotting them for monhts on end does not help them though, in the end the horse starts to stiffen in the back and carry it's neck very low, and get so overly relaxed and dull that it looses all animation. So teach the horse to trot for a few rides, then start tölt-training, trotting them a bit every ride. It is though not nessesary to get the horse to tölt to get it to trot first. More on trot in training the pacy tölter.
Ride tölt for short distances when beginning to tölt-train a pacy horse. Sometimes, even just a few metres at a time. It is far, far better that the horse goes in clean tölt for 10 metres in a whole ride, rather than 5 miles in pacy tölt, if you are training it to tölt properly.
Half-halts. When the pacy horse is going in clean (or cleaner) tölt, but starts loosing it and going towards pacyness, it's often enough to do half-halts to keep them in the beat.
Exersises. A pacy horse is like an unathletic person, it's muscles are often stiff and need softening exersises. Ride the horse in circles, both at walk and later tölt, and in figure eights. Also ride slaloms at walk and later tölt. Teach your horse to sidepass, do shoulders out and other exersises you know to soften the body of the horse. Stopping the horse collected also improves the engagement of the hind end of the horse. Take care that the exersises soften the horse, instead of making it tenser and stiffer. This is the *most important thing* when training the pacy horse to tölt. Many horses even find the way to the clean tolt by learning first to do shoulder in and shoulder out at walk, and then at tölt, both to the left and to the rigt. As they manage to do a clean tölt while doing those exercises, you can gradually get them over to going straighter and doing clean tölt that way too. More about the exercises.
Dressage often helps a pacy horse to tölt better. The collection shown on this picture would be too much to use in the tölt. But it is good to lay the foundation to tölt, by using this much collection in walk and trot.
©-Britt Ingrid H. Grimnes
Ride downhill. Most pacy tölters clean the tölt going slightly downhill. A pigpacer going down a rather steep hill has to go over to tölt, or he will simply stumble, so that can be used as a last resort. Take care, think of the feet of the horses, use all available hills you ride, but not steep hills (exept if forced to do so). Few pacy tölters get better going uphill, some of them even get more sloppy in the movements (they do not have to lift their front feet as high to go uphill). So, again, riding uphill is usually not recommended if you want to improve the tölt. Many horses clean the beat a bit going uphill, but they are not moving differently, this only happens because the distance to the ground is shorter for the front feet. So, riding uphill because of that is a false consolation.
Speed. Try many speeds in the tölt, and figure out at what speed the tölt is cleanest. Train your horse to begin with at the speed that is best for it. When the tölt is secure and satisfying at that speed, try going a bit faster and a bit slower, to teach the horse to tölt in a wider range. Train the whole range that the horse can manage, but not where the horse starts to fail. You want to teach the horse success, not failure. Medium speed is usually easiest for pacy tölters.
Training youngsters. Do not start tölttraining in a youngster you are starting untill it knows the most important aids (reins, legs, voice etc.) and has gotten good balance in walk, trot and canter. It is a big change for a youngster to carry a man, and it needs a month or two to develop muscles to carry the man in good balance. And it needs good balance to be able to tölt. Ride the youngster only for short distances in tölt (even just a few meters at a time) while it is learning, tölting is straining while the youngster doesn't have balance.
Force. Never use force, that will just result in a tense and stiff and hard-mouthed horse. To ride in a soft tölt, you have to be soft yourself. Learning to ride relaxed and balanced on the horse helps both you and the horse.
Shoes. If nothing else works, you can use 10 mm thick shoes or 3-8 ounce boots to help you and the horse for a short while. It is a last resort, and should be avoided.
If this doesn't help for a certain horse/rider combination, it is better to be glad riding the horse in pig-pace, rather than getting frustrated by repeating, failing experiments. If the rider is happy with the pacy horse, the horse is happy with itself.