sidle, amble

Poets and writers of Fredericton heard a novelist and then a poet describe protagonists who were not equine first "sidle" then "amble" (no, not in dialog.)

Did no one watch "Buck" after "The Horse Whisperer"? Would Robert Redford know the difference?

So long as there are horses on bridle paths in New York's Central Park, writers and poets should know which word is for the gait of a horse before they trot to the podium.

Of course, dialog would be another matter.

Hint: without sideways motion or motion along the side of, say, a bar, there is usually no sideling movement - and then there are horses working under fine horsemanship and moving in cross-steps ... sideways.

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