Tölt exercises for a trotty Icelandic horse

Hello! How lovely that you ride an Icelandic horse! To improve the tölt in a horse that is trotty, we first need to work out a little of what is making it trotty.

The tölt is a four-beat gait with the same footfall sequence as the walk, and it contains both a diagonal moment (trot) and a lateral moment (pace). In a pure tölt, we want the horse to spend the same length of time in each phase, so the same amount of time on the lateral pair as on the diagonal. When a horse becomes trotty, it stays longest, too long, on the diagonal, and if it gets really pronounced the horse tips over into trot.

So what we actually want is for the horse to shift a little more towards the lateral, pacey side, without going all the way to a full lateral pace, that is, spending the longest on the lateral moment.

Many horses that are trotty go in a high outline with a dropped back and find it hard to stretch over the topline in tölt.

So what should you do? As with everything, solid basic schooling helps a great deal: building balance, straightness and posture, and teaching the horse exercises and movements. The single best exercise for helping a trotty horse clean up its rhythm is the halt, because the horse has to take a longer step under with its hind leg, which shortens the diagonal phase and improves the rhythm.

If the horse is very trotty and it is hard to keep it in tölt, it is a good idea to ride plenty of walk exercises and work on balance, carrying power and straightness. Avoiding trot for a period can also be a good idea, even though the horse can no doubt carry itself correctly and trot in good rhythm.

If, on the other hand, the horse has not really learnt to tölt and is very strong in the trot, leg-yield in trot can be the route into tölt.

If what I have described feels hard to achieve on your own, my best tip is to get help from a good trainer with sound knowledge of Icelandic horses.

Good luck!