Can you teach your gaited horse to gait more smoothly? Yes you assuredly can. I put on a LOT of horseback miles. So my aim is to teach the horse to gait as smoothly as it is capable of doing on a loose rein - meaning ZERO contact between your hands and the bit. IF you maintain constant bit contact when trail riding or doing most of the day's tasks on a ranch or while road riding then candidly you have not taught that horse to accept responsibility to gait the way you ask and maintain that gait until you ask for something different - instead you are trying to constantly hold it to doing something it has NOT yet agreed to do - thus you have some training work to do on both yourself and your horse. When you are trail riding or doing ranch work or road riding - literally any riding that involves hour after hour in the saddle - it does not much matter exactly what four beat ambling gait your horse is doing (and some horses shift between gaits - I have caught it on slow motion video) - what does matter is if it can do its travelling gait - a four beat ambling gait - smoothly for you the rider - and efficiently for the horse so it does not tire easily - so it can gait along faster than it can walk mile after mile. So in just a few words how do you work on getting smoother gait? IMO - first work the walk - meaning work to get your horse to walk faster. If it naturally walks 3mph then work to get it to walk 3.5mph then 4mph then 4.5mph then 5mph. This will NOT be the work of a single riding session most likely. But work the walk until they can walk MUCH faster than they naturally used to walk. While you are doing that work on developing a much faster Flat Foot Walk they may just offer up the Running Walk - which is the exactly same footfall as the Flat Foot Walk but with more energy and more overstride. If you were monitoring speed on an app on your phone you will suddenly see it go from 5mph to 7mph (or so) when it starts doing the running walk. Yes working the walk is IMO important but what else can you do even while you are teaching your horse to walk faster. If (when you ask for second gait) your horse is trotty - you generally break up the trot by putting your arms forward and pulling as near to straight up as is possible on the head - literally you are working to hollow the back momentarily in order to break up the trot. As soon as the trot breaks up you release the horse to a loose rein. If you are consistent and are praising the horse when it gives smoother gait then the horse will figure out that you like smooth gait - that you are asking it to do smooth gait. ---- If your horse is pacey then the key to smoothing the gait is generally getting the horse to flex at the poll - round its back - so you have to work on getting it to learn to flex at the poll when you pick up light pressure on the reins - generally you simultaneously need to give a bit of leg pressure to keep the horse moving at close to the same speed - this is essentially what dressage folks call "driving the horse into the bit." If you are on a driveway or road you can hear the rhythm change. And when the pace is broke up things get smoother with less side to side motion. Praising the horse RIGHT AWAY when it is gaiting smoother is the most effective way to get the horse to figure out that you want smooth gait. Obviously effective praise can vary from horse to horse. Once you have gotten just a very few steps of smooth gait stopping and praising works well for many horses - so I would suggest starting there - you may have to explore a bit to find exactly how your horse best accepts the praise so that it then does more smooth gaiting for you. A horse that has the gaiting gene but only has trotted or only has paced is going to have to learn that you favor a four beat smooth ambling gait rather than the gait the horse has learned to prefer. The horse may at first only be able to gait smoothly a few steps - so you need to get busy and praise it while it is doing good. Then as it figures out that you favor a smooth four beat ambling gait it will offer a bit more and it will begin to strengthen the muscles that it needs to use to give that smooth four beat ambling gait - a few steps - then perhaps 25 yards - then 50 yards - then 100 yards and eventually IF YOU work at it bit by bit it will gait smoothly mile after mile. The light switch of understanding will come on - the needed ability will get developed. --- By way of analogy gaited horses are MUCH more musically talented than walk-trot-canter horses. Walk-trot-canter horses can ONLY play three songs - a four beat walk - a two beat trot OR a two beat pace - and a three beat canter. Gaited horses can play those songs (gaits) as well but that gaiting gene also gave them a four beat footfall sequence which allows them to do the smooth four beat ambling gaits. And you are the band director working to turn that extra dose of musical talent into a beautifully smooth four beat song (gait) with every note as evenly spaced in time to the others as you can get that horse to do. And yes you want them to play that song themselves - on a loose rein. As they develop ability to smoothly gait on a loose rein and you feel them go pacey - you lightly make contact - get that flex at the poll - give a bit of leg to drive them up into the bit and feel and listen for the four beats to return then you go back IMMEDIATELY to a loose rein so they know they are doing what you requested. Similar deal if the horse goes trotty but sometimes you gotta raise their head and break up the trot via momentarily hollowing out their back. You learn how to be a good band director - how to channel the talent of the pupil you are working with. How to get the most desirable output from the horse with the least input from you. Happy Gaiting!!