| In Iceland we talk about three types of tölt:
Clean tölt (tölt or hreint tölt), with
perfect four-beat. The beat you hear is
1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4
as each of the four legs step down.
1=left hind foot 2 = left front foot 3 = right
hind foot 4=right front foot.
Trot-tölt (brokk-tölt), where you hear two-beat even
though the horse is tölting. It becomes more up-and-down to
sit on, and it's a mixture between tölt and trot. The horse
wants to trot
and does it if given free reins when brokk-tölting. Then the beat
is still four beat, but nearer trot, you hear
1--2-3--4-1--2-3--4-1--2-3--4
Pacy tölt (bundið tölt or skeidtölt), where you
hear two-beat even though the horse is tölting. It becomes more
from side-to-side to sit on, and its a mixture between tölt and pace.
The beat is still four beat, but nearer pace, you hear
1-2--3-4--1-2--3-4--1-2--3-4
You can think of the gaits as being on one fluid line, with trot and
pace on each extreme:
_____________________________________
trot
trot-tolt clean tolt pacy
tolt pace
When a horse is doing clean tolt, it is doing the same footfall as in walk.
The difference is that in walk a horse is standing on 3 feet when a horse
is standing on only 1 foot in tolt.
Other faults in tolt include
A small hop in one of the front legs, as a horse is getting nearer
canter, then the beat is
1-2-3-hop4-1-2-3-hop4
Another fault is vixl, when a horse mixes gaits in such a way that
the horse tolts, but because of tension it does a mix and it feels like
it is jumping an inch in in loose air for a split second an
then it tolts again. The footfall there is very complicated and
I'll spare you an explanation, as it is rather rare.
Piggy-pace (lull) where the horse is pacing, but so slow that
you want the horse to tolt, not pace. The horse is very stiff in
movements doing this and you are thrown from side to side in the
saddle.
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