What is a Walking Horse?
Since all horses walk to food and water from birth on, the name has brought much confusion. but here are the basics: After the American Civil War had destroyed fences and separated livestock from owners certain horses were found that used an unfamiliar middle gait between ordinary walking and the gallop. This way of using the legs and body produced a far smoother ride than the trot. Owners tried to preserve this gait in later generations, and called the gait the running walk. The name has led to much confusion, but the capitalized name Walking Horse is applied to horses descended from that source. The confusion doesn’t end there, because in more recent times breeders searching for flashy and crowd pleasing animation in the show ring developed Walking Horses descended from the original lines that use a rack or singlefoot gait, but continued labeling this as a running walk. The Walking Horse Journal is devoted to horses that use the original running walk gait, leaving show horses and sho
