Absolutely. Even a first-time rider can tell the difference between a Foxtrotter (or any gaited horse) and a Thoroughbred. That's the extreme.
There can big differences in the "feel" of horses of similar breeding and conformation as well, but not so radical that they would be obvious from the ground.
Totally.. Elixir prolly has way more diverse experience with horses than I do... I come from a Midwest horse family, but live in the Northeast...
Horses are as diverse as cars... to make an analogy, Roy's horse is a jeep with an itty bitty nitro tank. People seem to be judging him on how he is riding his jeep with a tee-shirt, shorts, sunglasses, and one arm hanging out the window instead of a suit and bowtie with both hands on the wheel at 10 and 2.. as if he is driving a limousine.
Quarter horses are not fun rides (I bet Elixir has a dozen ways to show I'm wrong about that, heh).. but it is a matter of personal preference. They are called quarter horses because they have only 4 strides (walk, trot, canter, gallop)... the strides relate to how they move their feet at different speeds... those are their forward gears (if they are cars). They have but 4 gears, and switching in and out of 2nd (trot) is a bitch.
Gated horses have one more stride (referred to as their gate). The walker I was making reference to has that extra stride between the walk and the trot.. I rode a Rhone for several years that had a wonderful gate just past the canter... when getting him up to speed it was like he lifted up off the ground like a glider... and he just loved to run...
Bless ya!
I grew up around horses, but didn't ride whatsoever for about 20 years. First owned horses about 20 years ago. Since then I have been a serious student of the animals and have become a sometimes teacher of people who own them. As a rider... I think I'm pretty good on a cutting horse, but no matter HOW good you are, there is no shortage of people who are twice as good. What I AM really good at is reading their language, and communicating with them via body language. That came naturally, as soon as I internalized the knowledge that they are PREY animals, HERD animals and FLIGHT animals. WWYDIYWAH? (what would you do if you were a horse?)
Anyhow, that poor beast the pedophile is torturing in those videos is doing his best to refrain from what he really wants to do about the "rider" (which coincidentally is exactly what I'd like to do about him). He does NOT trust or accept the leadership of the pedophile, and is probably ruined for life. Makes me see red.
Gaited horses really are a dreamlike experience - Malintent describes the same feeling that I and virtually everyone I know who has ridden them expresses. (In few more years and I'll likely be relegated to only riding gaited horses - they're much easier to "sit".)
I also agree that on average, quarterhorses have rough gaits. But that's largely because nobody ever taught them to collect themselves, round their backs, break at the poll and keep their feet under them. They are perfectly able and willing to do that, but you have to invest the time and patience in them. Once they're there, they can be amazingly smooth. Much more so than most Thoroughbreds or Arabs (partly because they are usually smaller).
I truly love (most) horses, and I have one that I can trust with my life, and do so regularly. It's unlike any relationship with any other species...
Sorry for the thread drift, all.