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Some horses have a fourth gait called ambling; the Icelandic pony's ambling gait…

2026-08-05 · 16:18 UTC ·@bswud ·1 min read

Brief

Horses can exhibit a fourth gait—ambling—best known in the Icelandic pony's 'tolt', famously smooth enough to carry a pint without spilling. Thoroughbreds have been heavily bred: the General Stud Book dates to 1791, the Darley Arabian (imported 1704) appears in ~95% of pedigrees, and Secretariat had a 10 kg heart. Historical breeding also produced trade-offs, like night blindness from Bronze Age spotting traits and medieval warhorses averaging ~14 hands.

Why it matters

Some horses have a fourth gait called ambling; the Icelandic pony's ambling gait, the 'tolt', is reportedly so smooth a rider can hold a full pint of beer without spilling.

Key details

  • Thoroughbreds have been intensely genetically optimized: Secretariat's heart weighed about 10 kg, the General Stud Book has recorded ancestry since 1791, and the Darley Arabian (brought to England in 1704) is an ancestor of roughly 95% of modern thoroughbreds.
  • Human selection altered horse traits over millennia: breeders favored stronger backs, lower anxiety and shorter generation times; Bronze Age breeding for leopard spotting induced night blindness, and medieval warhorses averaged about 14 hands (pony-sized).
Source evidence

From this article I learned that some horses have a FOURTH gait, in addition to walking, trotting, and cantering/galloping: ambling. Some amblers can amble incredibly smoothly. The Icelandic pony has an ambling gait called a 'tolt' that is so smooth that a rider can hold a full pint of beer and it will not spill!

Aria Schrecker (@Aria_Babu)

With the possible exception of broiler chickens, no creature has been so genetically optimized as the thoroughbred horse.

Read more about how we made the ultimate race horse today in Works in Progress: worksinprogress.co/issue/the…

🐎 Secretariat, the greatest racehorse of all time, had a heart that weighed 10kg, twice the size of a regular horse's.

🐎 We have been consistently recording the ancestry of thoroughbreds in the General Stud Book since 1791.

🐎 Breeders discovered that horses from Arabia, Central Asia and North Africa were often faster. So the Genghis Khan of thoroughbred horses is an Arabian stallion called the Darley Arabian, brought to England in 1704. He’s an ancestor of 95% of all modern thoroughbreds.

🐎 The first records of horse domestication show us selecting for stronger backs, lower anxiety and shorter generations.

🐎 In the Bronze Age, people bred horses for leopard spotting, which incidentally, caused night blindness.

🐎 Medieval warhorses were much smaller than today’s massive beasts. They stood at about 14 hands high, roughly the size of a pony.

Link

The ultimate horse - Works in Progress Magazine

Selective breeding has pushed horses to the limits of biology. But at what cost?
worksinprogress.co

— https://nitter.net/Aria_Babu/status/2085036999392587776#m