Awkward gait when going over American forest (5)
I believe the answer is:
taiga
'forest' is the definition.
(I know that taiga is a type of forest)
'awkward gait when going over american' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
an anagram of 'gait' is 'taig' which is within the answer.
'american' could be 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names) and 'a' is found within the answer.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for taiga that I've seen before include "trees" , "Swampy Siberian forest" , "Russian zone" , "tree-covered region" , "Swampy forest south of tundra" .)