From NWHA National News, “The Judge’s Mouth: Can a Pacy Horse get the Blue Ribbon?” By Rose Miller

First, we should decide what pacy means for this discussion. It does not mean pacy like an Amish buggy horse or a Standardbred race horse. Those horses if shown should be given the last placements, or none at all depending upon the number of horses in the class.

For this discussion, we shall consider two kinds of Tennessee Walking Horses that do not have the proper 4 beat gait, but are a little more towards the 1 - 2 pacy beat. The first is not bouncing his rider out of the saddle, but the rider’s head is not moving along smoothly, as in a true walk. He has a shorter choppier pacy stride. A horse of this nature would most likely not square up with a heavier shoe; his conformation makes him pace. Sometimes specialized riding or different training gear can help these horses. It is fairly obvious that this horse would probably not get the blue ribbon.

The other kind of pacy horse to consider here is the one with more looseness, more amble, more length of stride, but still not having the true walk. Heavy shoes would help this horse walk more correctly. Different riding skills (such as dressage) could also square up this kind of horse. His conformation is not far off from the true walking conformation and could be useful in a breeding program.

Here is an important question to be considered: what kind of Tennessee Walking Horses do we wish to propagate? There has been discussion on NWHA’s Judge’s Committee about our horses getting more and more square going, and at the same time, loosing stride and forward movement. Most of the time, these horses have a wonderful walk, flat walk, and canter, but when pushed to go faster into the famous running walk…they do not have one. Our breed is famous for moving forward comfortably and with some speed. It is my belief that we should not loose this ability, so it follows that my opinion is one that might in some circumstances reward the horse that shows more forward movement, but is a little pacy.

The first kind of pacy walking horse would be tied down more than the second pacy horse because his conformation is not one we would wish to promote in breeding

The horses in each particular class must be considered by the judge; everything is relative. If you have an almost perfectly gaited horse, but he makes mistakes, and the looser going Walker turns in an almost perfect performance, by default, the pacy horse would win.

If you have more square going animals along with a looser going, but still pacy horse, the pacy horse may place over the overly square ones providing they all are equal in their performances. Conversely, the more square horse would win if he made no errors and the looser horse did.

A too square horse, one with a very busy head shake, but no running walk, is just fine for your personal horse to ride at home and on the trails. In the show ring where we showcase future breeding stock and show the future of our breed, more discrimination is needed. It is my opinion that very square moving animals should be penalized even if that means a looser going horse will win the blue.

It goes without saying that the perfect Tennessee Walking Horse is the one we all want to breed, own, ride and show. In the show ring, we will see many variations on the perfect Walking Horse. As judges it our duty to choose horses we feel will better the breed in the utmost.