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Fast
tölt.
Orri from Þúfu. |
In Iceland we talk about three types of tölt:
Clean
tölt (tölt, hreint tölt, single foot,
rack), with perfect four-beat. The beat you hear is
1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4
as each of the four legs step down.
Trot-tölt
(brokk-tölt, fox-trot, trotty tölt), where you hear almost two-beat
even though the horse is tölting. It becomes more up-and-down
to sit on, and it's a mixture between tölt and trot. The horse
wants to trot and does it if given free reins when brokk-tölting.
Then the beat is still four beat, but nearer trot, you hear
1--2-3--4-1--2-3--4-1--2-3--4.
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Pacy tölt. |
You can think of the gaits as being on one fluid line, with trot and pace on each extreme:
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trot
trot-tölt
clean tölt
pacy tölt
pace
When
a horse is doing clean tölt, it is doing the same footfall as in walk.
The
difference is that in walk a horse is standing on 3 feet once in a while,
when a horse is standing on only 1 foot in tolt.
Both
trotty tölt and pacy tölt are considered faults in the icelandic
horse. Other faults in tölt include:
Rolling:
A small hop in one of the front legs, as a horse is getting nearer canter,
then the beat is 1-2-3-hop4-1-2-3-hop4.
Víxl:
When a horse mixes gaits in such a way that the horse tölts, but because
of tension it does a mix and it feels like it is jumping an inch in in
loose air for a split second an then it tolts again. The footfall
there is very complicated and I'll spare you an explanation, as vixl is
rather rare. It is extremely uncomfortable to sit víxl.
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Pig-pace. |
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and the movements of the horse are smooth. Toppur from Hömluholti. |
It is difficult to discuss how to ride tolt, as individual horses are very different. You learn much by using every oppurtunity you have to try riding different icelandic horses, and trying how you have to change your riding in many minute ways riding them. The same horses can have, and usually have, different footfall in the tolt depending on many things, like how they are ridden, in what shape they are, on what kind of ground they are tolting, whether they are riding up or downhill, how fast they are going, and more.
As the footfall is similar in walk and tölt, you often let the horse tolt from walk. As the horse carries its neck higher in tolt than in walk, you shorten the reins a bit before and while the transition is done. Usually it is easier for the rider to tolt the horse if the rider sits a bit backwards in the saddle, that is, sits mabe an inch or two behind the point where he usually sits. The rider has to take care not to tilt backwards, the legs and back should be straight as usually, and relaxed. So, in the transition from walk to tolt, the rider:
1. Moves a bit backwards in the saddle.
2. Shortens the reins.
3. Encourages the horse to go faster, with a verbal clue and with the lower
leg.
4. When the horse has tolted a few steps usually you give it again a bit
of rein (an inch or so), so it can move freely inthe neck, but keep neccesary
reincontact. The hands should be like rubberbands, have reincontact
without stiffness.
Now comes the difficult part, that when you’re riding the tolt, you want to let the horse keep on having the neck raised, but at the same time you don’t want to have the horse bracing against you, so that it’s mouth becomes unresponsive. You do thus keep the reins rather short but use half-halts and playing with the reins to get the horse to keep it’s raised position without stiffening against the reins.
So that the horse can tolt well, it needs freedom in the withers (that is why you move the weight backwards and encourage speed so that the horse powers from its behind, and that is also partly why goey horses are popular in Iceland, this is more natural for them). It also needs to carry its neck rather high but the faceline may not be too horisontal, or too vertical. The horse raises it’s neck naturally if it is properly collected and is in a good shape. You do not want the horse to raise it’s neck without collection, that just results in an eve-neck and bad or no tolt. The horse is collected, not like a dressage horse, but collected anyway, using their behind as a motor to push the light front end forward, free the withers and allow the horse to balance it self, not lean on the reins. If the horse does not know how to collect, teach it collection at the walk, and later (weeks later) try keeping that collection at the tolt.
If you find that the horse is loosing the tolt, and goes from tolt towards walk or wrong footfall (pacy or trotty) the simplest way to correct this, that works in most cases, is to use half halts. You take and give with the reins, and you give a bit of leg, then you’re asking the horse for collection without the leg resulting in the horse actually going faster. Very often it is enough to play a bit with the reins to get the horse into correct beat again.
Remember that the effect of the reins are really just as long lasting as the “take”. When you take the rein, you’re working with the rein, but if you keep on holding the reins stuck and stiff the horse gets stuck and stiff back. So, you give again, and if needed, you take again, and then give again.
Find the ideal speed for your horse to tolt clean (or almost clean). All horses have a speed where it is easiest for them to tolt clean. For pacy horses this is usually medium-speed, for trotty horses this is usually slow or fast tolt. As they get more training, you can tolt them slower and faster than this particular speed without loosing clean hoof-beat. But this is also the reason that it is often problematic to tolt-train horses with bad tolt-balance in a group, because each of them might need to tolt in different speed to be at their best.
Find the ideal ground for your horse to tolt on. Usually it is best where the ground it not very soft, it is more difficult for the horse to tolt as the ground gets softer. Keep though in mind that tolting for long distances on asphalt is straining for the legs of the horse.
The horse needs to be soft in the mouth to tolt well, do everything you can to keep your horse soft and responsive in the bit. Avoid a dropped back and eve-neck, because that leads to a tense body and stiff or no tolt. The softer you are, the softer the horse is, and the softer the tolt is.
The saddle needs to fit well for the tolter, and sit right, or he stiffens up to brace himself against pain.
Many horses tolt better going slightly downhill (again, extremes are bad). It is difficult for most horses to tolt clean uphill, and riding a horse uphill in tolt either teaches the horse nothing about tolting or makes the tolt worse. Tolt (or walk) on horisontal or downhill, trot (or walk or canter) uphill. But as with everything, you can not generalize about every horse, experiment with your horse whether it works best going up- or downhill, or on flat land.
Improving a horse that lacks balance in the tolt takes time in many cases. Be patient, good things happen slowly, and do not get frustrated even though the training takes weeks or even months. Teaching a piggy-pacer to tolt can take riding him 4-5 times a week for 3-6 months. If it happens fast, be overjoyed, but brace yourself for a long training period. Give your horse at least 3-4 rides per week for 2 months if you really want to change it's tolting.
But the most important thing, if wanting to improve the tolt in your horse, is working on getting the horse more athletic. Tolt problems are often caused by stiffness in the horse, and lack of collection, so all methods that help your horse be more athletic help you to improve it’s tolt.
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.
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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. |
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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.
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C: Britt Ingrid H. Grimnes |
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 younsters. 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.
Horses that do trotty-tolt can be doing that for many reasons, not necessarily because of lack of talents. Very often you can't say very much about the natural gaits and capabilities of your horse until after starting and then more training.
It is more difficult to correct a trot-tolting horse if it has a long back, a stiff straight) back, a neck that is low on the withers, or a very tall croup.
You have to help the trot-tolter to free its withers, be sure that the saddle isn't lying on the withers, even move it a bit behind the point where it usually lies on the horses back. Keep in mind though, to be moderate, as the saddle can sore the back of the horse if it is to much backwards. Never use weights of any kind on the front feet of the trotty tolter, even remove the front shoes if nothing else works.
The principles behind riding the trotty tolter are, maybe surprisingly, very similar to riding the pacy tolter, except that the trotty tolter is often very simply lazy. Reading the chapter about the pacy tölt (here above) might thus also help you understand what is happening in the body of your horse. Teach the horse collection (so it uses it's croup and doesn't hollow it's back) without pressing the head to vertical in the tolt. The head may be in the vertical in walk. Ride slightly downhill, to free the withers of the horse and get it to use it's behind more. Sit a bit behind the place where you usually sit in the saddle, but keep a good seat.
It is very difficult for a trot-tolter to tolt on an uneven, soft road. Also, as he can only tolt very slow to begin with, it is best to tolt-train this horse alone, as other horses riding with it disturb it's concentration (as they either go too fast or too slow) so it just trots.
Do
anything you can figure out to encourage the lazy trotter to love a bit
of speed. Use a crop (moderately), voice signals (sing operas if
necessary), do an occasional brisk canter, train the tolt when the horse
sees the barn and is going home, ride different trails if you have the
opportunity etc. Very often you can only do tolt-training on the
way home, because the horse is lazy. This same horse might trot
briskly,
but hasn't got enough go to tolt without this extra effort from the trainer.
If the horse is a trotter and nothing else, start training the walk as it was tolt, using all the same clues and collection. Increase the speed once in a while, so the horse walks fast in a tolt-posture. Train this horse often, maybe riding it for 20-30 minutes 5 times per week. Ride the horse in increasingly fast walk, until one day you're riding slow tolt. Always train the tolt for short distances, maybe 50-200 yards at a time, giving the horse an opportunity to stretch the neck in long reins for a few steps after the tolt. Do this many times in the ride, doing other gaits in between.
Softening exercises, like sidestepping, stopping, transitions, backing etc. help to free the withers and help the horse to give in in the poll. Remember that you want the horse to give in in the poll, without leaning on the reins. Do small half-inch movements with the reins (half-halt) to stop the horse from leaning, and becoming more on the bit.
If a horse only trots, start doing this while it is still young. It is increasingly difficult to train a trotting horse to tolt as it becomes older. On the other hand, your trotty horse is very unlikely to become very pacy, or a pig-pacer, which is a comfort to know. Once the horse is settled in the tölt, it will tölt in clean beat, while the pig-pacer often reverses into pig-pace again, even after years of training.
Work on asking her to go from walk to tolt to walk again, without falling into trot or pace on the later transition, so the horse knows that it's supposed to stay in gait. It often helps trotty horses to stay in gait to always do the transitions walk-tolt and walk-trot, and never walk-tolt-trot, because the horse knows then that it's not accepted to go from tolt to trot, and will then not take the reins from you and demand trot. If the horse demands the trot as you do the transition tolt-walk, see if you can prevent it by holding the reins a bit higher as you do the transition.
Work on increasing the speed range, by doing much of the speed of tolt that is easiest for the horse, and some of a bit slower tölt and a bit faster tölt. If you go for 40 minutes ride, use maybe 5 minutes on trot, 5 minutes on walk, 20 minutes of the easy tolt, and 10 minutes (divided into many small sessions) of the fastest or slowest tölt the horse can handle.
Work on a straight road to begin with, and when the horse has got more balance you can work on tolting while doing bends and circles.
When asking for faster tölt, concentrate and find exactly the speed that the horse can handle, and exercise that. It's better to ride 10 yards of good, fast tolt in the ride than a mile of tolt that consists of rolling, pacing, falling into trot or other faults.
It often helps the horses to keep the balance when going faster, to ride with one rein an inch shorter than the other rein, if the horse is crooked, and use your leg to ask for more speed on the side where the rein is longer. It depends on the individual horse whether it's better to do this with the right or left rein/side.
Ask for fast tölt for short distances to begin with. If the horse manages to go at it's fastest tolt for only 10 yards before falling into trot, ask it for slower tolt and then walk just a second before you know it will give up in the fast tölt. Set the horse up for success. Give it a break (walk for half a minute) after doing the best fast tölt. Then the horse will try to do well so it can get a break. If it fails doing a good fast tolt and falls into trot or pace, slow it immediately to walk and ask for tolt again, then faster tolt.
As you get more and more successes, you can start to increase the speed range, ask for a tiny bit longer distances, and a tiny bit faster tolt. This takes time, but gives good rewards to the rider.
What I often find with 4-gaited horses is that it is more difficult for
them to
tolt
when doing a bend (on the other hand it is more difficult for 5-gaiters
to trot through a bend). So ways to help your horse to do this are
for example these:
Try to find your horse's weaker side, is it more difficult for it to tolt to the right or to the left? Do exersises like sidestepping, turning on the forehand, trotting in sircles etc to strenghten that side, if you find much difference in how strong the sides are.
Find the speed that the horse can manage when doing bends. Often it is easier for them to tolt slow through a bend than fast.
Find how much bending the horse can manage, if he can only do a soft bend, tolt him in a soft curve, gradually making the bends more difficult as the horse gains balance (can take weeks). Do this often.
Set the horse up for success, doing things gradually more difficult.
Try
different supports with the hands, that is to say if it is easier for him
to tolt in bends if you shorten the right rein one inch, or the other rein,
or give him more rein in either side. Also it can help to encourage
him a bit with a leg or touch of a crop in the side where you are giving
the extra inch of rein. This is to encourage him to use one side
a bit more, the other side a bit less.
Let's take an example: You are turning to the left, tolting.
To do that, the horse has to bend a bit in the poll and through all his
body, and take bigger steps with the right legs, smaller steps with the
left legs. Very often it helps the horse then to shorten the left
rein one inch, touching the right shoulder with a crop (so the horse doesn't
shoot out the right shoulder, and to encourage bigger steps), do a tap-tap-tap
with your right leg to encourage the right leg to take bigger steps, and
give the horse an inch more of rein on the right side, all at the same
time.
The
reason for the vixl is that the horse is tense, and it does not manage
to keep the gait because the whole topline is tense, at least for the split
second. So tension must be avoided, and crude aids. Reins must
be used extremely carefully (holding them steady, not giving any unnessary
clues). The horse can regain balance by riding it carefully like
this for a long time (maybe weeks) in a careful way, and do exersises to
loose the tension. Very much care must be taken when going slow or
fast, as that is difficult for a pacy horse, and that is the time when
the horse that does víxl is most likely to do so. Do not loose
courage, this is not an easy fault to correct. So, a horse that does
vixl often can just manage the rack/tolt at one certain speed to begin
with (work on finding the ideal speed for your horse). When you get
the horse into the tolt/rack, relax and try not to interfere with the horse,
so that it can learn to relax a bit in the gait, of course though not so
much that it gets all on the forehand. It's a thin line you have
to walk there, but every stretch of gait without vixl is an accomplishment.
Gradually you can ask the horse to do a bit slower and a bit faster tolt/rack,
but try to work on success, not failure, in the horse.
Working
on releasing the tension at walk is also important, so that the walk is
not pacy and tense. Do all the things that your horse can do to improve
being athletic at the walk, for example serpentines, sidestepping, turning
on the forehand and such things. Allow the horse to drop the neck
once in a while at the walk and learn to enjoy the relaxation.
It
is also good that he trots easily, as he can then relax at the trot.
So, mix walk and trot training with short episodes of tolt/rack to begin
with, and gradually make the episodes longer, as the horse starts to manage
it.
Pacyness
and vixl often goes hand in hand, and maybe your horse connects the lateral
gait with a racing experience he has had before. Maybe your horse
is also very pacy in the rack as he's thinking about the fast pace, if
he was a pace racer.
Weights, whether you are talking about boots or shoes, cause the foot of the horse to take longer steps and bigger steps than a foot without weights.
Remember that heavy shoes and boots cause extra strain on tendons and boots can easily rub the skin on the horse's foot untill it's very sore. If using boots, check the feet before and after every ride, to be sure that the tendons aren't swollen and the skin isn't sore. If that happens, stop using the boots.
But it is often helpful to use heavier shoes for maybe a two months period, to help the rider to clean pacy tölt, instead of endless work with the reins, seat etc. , and can be easier on the horse. Using heavy shoes or boots for long periods of time, or every time you ride the horse, does though not teach the horse to gait correctly, it gets used to carrying the extra weight and the effects of the boots are lost again.
Using boots is also common in competition, to get the finishing touch on the horse, with more action and cleaner tölt (if the horse tends to be pacy). But then it is best just to use the boots a few times or not at all between competition, so as not to get the horse sore or loose the effect of the boots.
If the hoof is allowed to be long, it helps to clean pacy tolt and give more action, but it also raises the risk of cracking the hoofs and breaking the heels. This is also a last resort.
If a trotty horse is shod, it is best to use light shoes on the front hooves, even no shoes if you can. Keep the front hooves short. Using heavy (10 mm thick) shoes on the hind feet for maybe two months can help, but often makes little difference.
If a pacy horse is shod, use weights or heavy shoes on the front hooves.
Remember,
all these corrections with weights, shoes and boots are ment to be used
for a short period only, 2 months or less. And also, that traditionally,
weights on icelandic horses do not exeed 10 mm thick shoes and 250 gram
heavy boots.
The
effects of saddles on tölttraining
