Horses used on the Escape Route

[BettyO]

Don't know about the Iceland ponies. Have never seen nor ridden one nor know of anyone who has. But it may be like a pacer, perhaps? Pacers are supposed to be an easy ride. Their legs move in a synchronized style. A Tennesee Walkers' gait is more or less a rocking trot. When I was a kid, a friend of my father owned one and I used to ride "Strawberry" (yes, he was a strawberry roan - i.e. roan with a red mane and tail as opposed to black) all the time. He was a huge horse, full 16-17 hands but extremely gentle and easy to ride.

Pacers are also faster than trotters on the average, though horses are raced at both gaits. Among Standardbred horses, pacers breed truer than trotters – that is, trotting sires have a higher proportion of pacers among their get than pacing sires do of trotters.

Here are the differences between trotting and pacing under saddle. Notice the legs on the pacer apart from that of the trotter.

The pacer in this photo is an Iceland pony.

   

Here is a trotting horse under saddle.

   

Powell's old one eyed nag was a pacer.

If you click on the following graphic you will see a pacer in motion. This an animated gif of a Muybridge motion picture taken of a pacer in the 1880s-1890s.