The kids took turns riding the horses so they could feel the differences between gaited and non-gaited horses as well as the variations in how the gaited horses perform their gaits. For instance, Piper as a Tennessee Walking horse flat walks, run walks and step paces. Raven and Honey Jo, my Mountain Pleasure Horses, perform the mountain walk and the mountain gait. Faith, a Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse, performs a trail walk, show walk, and show gait. Jasper, my Peruvian Paso, has the paso llano and the sobreandando. The one thing they all have in common is smoothness of their movements. I've found that everyone seems to have a different opinion as to which breed's movement they like the best.
We studied basic horse anatomy-they even did a horse-homework worksheet. Kid 1 helped them give Piper a bath and we finished out the riding with a game of catch on horseback. Thanks so much for participating. I hope you had as much fun as I did!