The five amazing gaits of the Icelandic horse, including "tölt" and flying pace.

The horses of Iceland are a so-called gaited horse breed. This means that most Icelandic horses have two extra gaits to offer besides walk, trot and canter/gallop. All horse breeds have these three natural gaits and can perform them without training. The extra gaits that set the Icelandic horse apart from other breeds are called tölt and flying pace. The extra gaits are natural and new-born foals frequently show them right from the start.

TÖLT
Tölt is the unique four-beat lateral gait, that the breed is best known for. The horse’s hind legs should move well under the body and carry more of the weight on the hind end, allowing the front to rise and be free and loose. Tölt is very smooth to ride since there is no suspension between strides, as is the case in trot or canter, and it can be ridden very slowly up to a very fast speed, depending on the horse.

FLYING PACE
The flying pace is the “fifth gear”, offering a two-beat lateral movement with suspension. This gait is ridden very fast, even used for racing and only for short distances, 100-200 metres usually. Not all Icelandic horses can pace, but those that manage all five gaits well are considered the best of the breed.

Read more: 5 Gaits of the Icelandic Horse (2:24)

A letter from Juliet M. Getty, Ph.D.

The issue is still free choice forage feeding.

I respect and honor the way horses are made—they are different—unique, really. In a suitable, native environment, they are quite capable of taking care of themselves. They are free to eat and roam and, well, be horses.

Domestication involves removing them from their natural setting, but their instincts for survival remain unchanged, and those instincts are based on compelling physiological and mental needs. Make no mistake about this: when we ignore or deny those needs, we seriously imperil our horses.

I have very deep convictions on respecting a horse’s instincts. Common horse care practices often suppress a horse’s instinctive behaviors, forcing the horse to compromise both physiologically and psychologically. Such compromises are innately stressful, and lead to life-threatening problems like ulcers and laminitis, and undesirable—even dangerous—behaviors.

Frequently, I caution against the stress of forage restriction. Some have said that the alternative I am describing—free choice forage feeding—appears to be a road to increased obesity and an increased risk of laminitis. But they are grossly mistaken.

When we see images of wild horses running free, we all experience the hush, the chill, and the awe of their power and majesty. That is Nature at her best – allowing these incredible animals to live as they are intended.

Why is it that we don’t see our own domesticated horses in the same way? Why is it that we think we can confine them to a small area for hours at a time, give them a few “square meals” each day and expect them to be right, physically and mentally? Are they not the same horse species that long ago lived a different life?

It’s been said that our horses have become different – that horses living in the wild don’t suffer from the ravages of insulin resistance, the main cause of laminitis. Yes, it’s partly true -- we don’t see laminitis when horses are free to feed themselves. But we do see insulin resistance, and that’s actually a blessing in the wild.

Insulin resistance is the body’s way of avoiding starvation. During a harsh winter, when the food supply is sparse, horses will hold on to body fat to help them survive. They do this by having an elevated blood insulin level. When insulin is high, the cells cannot release fat. This is a survival mechanism.

We duplicate this when we restrict forage. The horse responds the same way – he is in survival mode! And he holds on to body fat.

Anything that causes insulin to rise will keep a horse fat. Hundreds of studies with humans confirm the connection between elevated insulin and obesity. Stress causes obesity in humans.

Why? Because cortisol (a stress hormone) causes insulin to rise. At the cellular level, the same is true for horses. We have equine studies to show how insulin rises during stress. So why isn’t this being extrapolated to obesity in horses?

Perhaps it’s because it doesn’t seem to make sense that eating more causes weight loss. It’s not the amount eaten but the type of food eaten that has the most impact. And we also know that starving oneself will result in weight loss (mostly muscle loss) but will slow down the metabolic rate so dramatically, that the weight comes back on with far fewer calories than it originally took to maintain one’s weight.

Yet the horse-related studies we choose to follow involve starving the horse to get him to lose weight. Which, of course, he does. And we celebrate. The conventional advice appears to work: Give the horse hay equal to 1.5% of his body weight, keep him in confined small space much of the day so he cannot graze, and he loses weight!

And if he doesn’t, reduce the amount of hay to 1%! The idiom, “not seeing the forest for the trees,” comes to mind. What is the big picture? What are you left with? A horse with less muscle mass, stressed to the max, with a sluggish metabolism so he will never live a normal life of grazing on pasture again. Never.

We have forced our horses to abandon their instincts.

They no longer get the inner signal that tells them to stop eating. To help you appreciate this, I’d like you to think about your childhood. When you were a toddler, you ate what you needed, and when you were no longer hungry, you stopped eating. Yes, you were coddled to finish your green beans, or no dessert!

So you ate more to get that reward. But your instincts (yes, you had them back then) were to eat only what your body required. As you grew, you discovered that eating has more rewards than just getting dessert; eating is comforting, it cures stress, boredom, or disappointment, and is just plain fun!

You likely don’t eat only when you’re hungry; you eat whenever you gather with friends or celebrate a special occasion. And guess what? Now that you’re grown, those instincts to eat only what your body needs have long faded.

Horses are a different story. They do not succumb to the pressures of society to influence their appetites. But when they are forced to eat on our schedules, they quickly become out of touch with that innate ability to eat slowly, a little at a time, and stop when satisfied.

Instead, they eat quickly, ravenously, with barely a breath in between each bite, because they do not know when their next meal will be available. When it gets close to feeding time they pace, bob their heads, paw the ground, and make strange noises.

This is not normal; it is a result of what we have done to our horses. We, well-meaning horse owners and caregivers, are putting our horses into survival mode!

Horses are unlike humans in one very significant way.

Their digestive tract is not the same as ours. The biology that drives the horse’s digestion is indisputable: The horse’s stomach produces acid continuously, necessitating the action of chewing to release acid-neutralizing saliva.

The digestive tract is made of muscles and needs to be exercised to prevent colic by having a steady flow of forage running through it. The cecum (the hindgut where forage is digested by billions of microbes) has both its entrance and exit at the top, thereby requiring it to be full so material can exit, lest it become impacted.

I appeal to you to look at this logically.

You should not put your horse in a dry lot or a stall with no hay. You should test your hay, make sure it is suitable for the horse (low in sugar, starch, and calories). If testing is impossible, then soak it to remove a significant amount of sugar and starch. Put it everywhere you can, encouraging your horse to take more steps to get the next bite.

Use slow feeders if you like. And think of ways to foster movement. Exercise, even a small amount, will make a difference. A larger amount will make a bigger difference.

When a horse loses weight the right way, his metabolic rate stays sound and he will be able to graze on pasture again. Perhaps you will have to limit it a bit, but maybe not. Some supplements may be helpful. I have seen hundreds of cases over the years where horses have returned to a normal life – healthy, full of vigor, with no grass restrictions.

Let your horse tell you how much he needs to eat.

Read more: Respect the Power of the Horse's Instincts