I am new to this site and new to TWH but after being away from horses for 35 yrs have decided to try one. I will be getting a 6 month stud colt next month and look forward to start working with him and from what I have read here so far I can see I will be able to get good advise when I need it. Just wondering if anyone here had Walking horses.

I have had TWH's for 20 years and still own the first one I bought, along with two others.

Your little one shouldn't be handled and groundworked any different than any other horse except for lunging. His shoulders are built for those big sweeping movements TWH's make and cannot turn the tight circles a trotting horse can.

You will see him do all kinds of mixed up stuff with his legs in the pasture. You will marvel at how he doesn't just tumble to the ground all in a tangle, but don't panic as that is just his gangly-gaited self being a kid.

He most likely will not "set" those legs into whatever his intermediate "gait birthrite" is until he's around 3-1/2 or 4 yrs old.

TWH's are capable of performing several different intermediate gaits; by intermediate, I mean gaits that replace the trot --- anything that resembles human powerwalking and the rider's butt never leave the saddle.

Trotting a TWH is verboten, eventhough some newer TWH owners think it's cute and cool, my thought is the horse was born to gait not trot.

If his testicles have dropped he will soon be getting old enough to be gelded. My grandpap did not like to geld the colts until they were close to a year old to give them time to grow and mature; as long as they were mannerly around humans and didn't try to jump the mares every chance they got. That was back in the 60's so ideas may have changed by now.

Liz Graves has an excellent website you might want to visit, where you can purchase books and DVD's.

Liz Graves:Gaited Horse--Gathering of Gaits

If you are planning on sending the Lad to a trainer when he's old enough, PLEASE look for a honest and ethical flatshod Walking Horse trainer. While there are many good and ethical trotting horse trainers, they just do not understand the mechanics of a gaited horse.

Training under saddle is where the trotting horse and the gaited horse must travel separate roads; until that point, they are both the same.

Hope this helps

Sorry i am not visited site yet,But i will sure visit this,Can you tell me at which section it is posted.

I ride TWH's. They can be a good investment as it is actually a fairly versatile breed. They are great horses, often have awesome personalities, and as long as you avoid padding them, you really won't have any issues with lameness outside of the breeds typical conformation (yay for being toed out!). Stifle injuries are quite common and a pain in the butt to deal with amongst padded Walkers.

I do suggest not breaking the colt until he is at least 3 years old. It is popular among the breed to break them around two, and as a general rule of thumb, four years is preferable to begin riding any horse. I personally cannot stand a sway backed Walker, but many of them are because they start them so young.

The dressage world has opened up to gaited horses and there is a division specific to Tennessee Walking Horses. You can also teach them to jump, although I don't honestly know about doing it competitively. Backyard jumping is fine although it might look goofy as all hell. They also make popular trail horses, so you may look into trail competitions, maybe endurance riding. Speed racking is very popular as well.

Some Walkers can be quite pacey, it is very much a side to side movement when riding them, but you can sit their gaits quite comfortably when they are well collected, and even post to the gaits if it does get rough. I rode a green broke, painted Walker a few weeks ago for an injured police officer looking at them, and he was as smooth as butter to ride.

I have never ridden a gaited breed, although i'd love to try any of them one day! Looks so comfortable!