​Rocky Mountain Horse

​Rocky Mountain Horse 
By Gaye DeRusso 
 
The Rocky Mountain Horse seems to be one of the most popular gaited horses at this time and one of the most expensive. Everyone loves their calm temperament, color, and shorter stride. But if you are getting one there are some things to know. 
 
Some have a natural smooth gait. Others are on the trotty or pacey side and some both trot and pace. This can make gaiting them more difficult. If you bought one that was trained well, even if it trots or paces when loose,  it should know the basics of arena and trail riding and gait well. If you bought one that was not trained well or had an owner that did not know how to gait it, you may be taking on somewhat of a project. It maybe young or old and still be a project due to the previous trainers or owners. Some of the trotty ones are not as smooth and  have more wiggle in the saddle when you ride their gait, so always best to gait them and make sure it is what you are looking for. 
 
The more you educate yourself, the more you will be able to pick the right one for you, or  to help the one you have, if you already bought a Rocky. 
 
Let’s start with gait. If it just gaits all the time when loose, it will be pretty easy to gait under saddle you just need to go the right speed. You should make sure the horse will do a slow trail walk, then also do a faster gait like a flat walk or slow rocky gait and then a faster rocky gait (saddle gait) and canter, if you want to canter. Many that just gait, can be harder to get to canter, because their gait is lateral, and the canter is diagonal, so just matters if the canter is important to you, you want to know how hard it will be to get. When they do their rocky gait, their head will be still, you should feel a side-to-side wiggle in the saddle, or it will be smooth, and the horse's tail will bounce up and down. 
 
If the horse just trots when loose, when you go to gait, it will most likely fall toward the trotty side of the gaited spectrum and go into a fox trot. The fox trot is a diagonal gait. You will feel a soft up and down in the saddle, the horses head will shake up and down and their tail usually waves like a flag. The fox trot is a nice gait but if you want them to do their rocky gait, you will have to help them. You will have to invert their back to get them to go lateral toward the rocky gait. You may have to bring their head up to your chest level to tense up their neck and if it still trots then try turning their head sideways as this also helps them to go lateral. If you ride with their back round and their head down, they will just fox trot or trot. 
 
You need to ride them in the correct frame to help them get that rocky gait and that's an inverted frame.  You need to take them being diagonal to lateral and that is not an easy task. Over time you can bring their head lower and relax their back some, but they may always need some inversion to do their best rocky gait. The good news is the trotty ones canter pretty easy.
 
If the horse just paces when loose, then it is already lateral, but too lateral, so you will need to try and get the horse framed up with their head down and a round back. That might be enough but if you feel a soft bounce then you now have a step pace, and you need to do some lateral movements such as circles, leg yield, shoulder, or hindquarters in to get them from the step pace to the rocky gait. Also make sure they are relaxing their back when you bring their head down, not just putting their head down with a tense back. A pacey horse will be harder to get into the canter, so if you want to canter, make sure you test the horse when you ride it to see how difficult it may be. 
 
Now depending on where you are riding, the terrain will affect the horse’s gait, so going up and down hills and going in different terrain can cause that horse to go from lateral to diagonal or diagonal to lateral. So, you have to understand that up hills make them trotty, down hills make them pacey, hard footing can make them pacey and deep footing can make them trotty and then you need to adjust the horse to keep them in gait. 
 
Wonder why they show their gait on the hard road, because they don't have to adjust the horse much to keep it in the same gait and speed. But once you get that horse home, you need to have a clue of how to ride it. 
 
Now let’s talk about age. The Rockies are so calm that many are sold to beginners or people getting back into horses and many older riders tend to buy them. But just because they are calm, does not mean they won't do anything bad. They are still young, so you need to know how to deal with a young horse. Make sure it is prepared for the job you want it to do, make sure you do ground work and get it to respect you and have a trainer nearby that is willing to help you. So many get these young Rockies and just want to walk slow, then the horse blows up for what they think is no reason. But there is a reason, it is young, it is not getting its energy out or using its brain and then something happens, and the horse just reacts. This is not a bad horse; this is just a young horse. 
 
These horses can also have eye problems such as MCOA- Multiple congenital ocular anomalies, it is associated with the gene responsible for the silver dappling, which you can read about, but if you’re buying one, have its eyes checked so you know and you can have it checked for the gene. Rockies  can have stifle issues which many gaited horses can, so make sure to keep them conditioned and do a stifle strengthening program. 
 
They tend to be easy keepers, so if you do not exercise them enough or over feed them, they can become insulin resistant. So be very careful with their weight and if you’re not riding much, feed less not more or get a hay net or grazing muzzle to slow their eating down. 
 
Rockies are great horses, but you should educate yourself and make sure they are the right breed for you and that you pick the right one for your skill level and get an age and temperament you can deal with. Not all are calm, and some have been ridden so fast, they are too fast for the new owner. So, test the horse well, ride it several times, work with the seller to learn how to ride it and get support from a trainer if you are new, just gettting back into horses or it is a young horse. 
 
But just like all the gaited breeds, Rockies are great horses.