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[RC] 50% duty cycle (was: engineers & trot, etc.) - k s swigartJim Pascucci said: I was going to suggest that, from a "power point" that the having the foot on the ground longer would be more efficient, but in both cases you present one can assume a 50% duty cycle--which is the most efficient for the body--and that cleans the slate. (I assume that each horse will have the foot in the air as long as it has it on the ground. That's the 50% duty cycle.) I am curious. What makes you assume this? I don't know that it is not true, but I don't know that it is true either and wonder why you take this as an assumption as I suspect that it is not. For instance, when my horse "trots" (I use the word in qoutes because, to a certain extent it is not a true trot, in that she dissociates the diagonal pairs slightly), she puts down her hind foot first (i.e. before the opposing fore) and she picks up her hind foot last (i.e. AFTER the opposing fore)--I have photos to prove this. Consequently, during the course of a single stride the hind foot is on the ground for longer than the opposing front foot. Therefore, since both the hind leg and the front leg spend the same amount of time during the entire length of a stride (this is axiomatic), there is no way, since they aren't spending the same amount of time on the ground, that they are both spending 50% of the time on the ground and 50% of the time in the air; one of them is spending more time than the other, so one of them has to be spending a greater percentage of time than the other. Additionally (although I do not have a reference for this), I believe that a high speed film analysis was done of TB racing gallops and they found that the really fast horses spent most of their time with their feet in the air (which was a surprise to the researhers), that the horses were, quite literally, flying. Because of this study (I will see if I can track the actual thing down), this suggests that from a "power point" having the foot on the ground is NOT the most efficient. Which makes a little bit of sense, the horse is doing the most work when the foot is on the ground (i.e. weight bearing and/or pushing off), so, it would seem to me, that what is most efficient is for horses to spend as little time and effort with their feet on the ground and most of the time with their feet in the air. However, I am not sure of any of this (except for what I have pictures of in my horses). Is there some reason, either theoretically or experimentally, to assume that each foot spends exactly 50% of the time on the ground and 50% of the time in the air? Have I missed something in the analysis above of my own horses? kat Orange County, Calif. :) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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