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RE: [RC] cantering - Susan E. Garlinghouse, DVMAre we that wrong when we think a horse can pick its gait that is most comfortable for them? No, you're not wrong, although the definition of 'comfortable' is actually a combination of lowest energy requirements, oxygen consumption, biomechanical forces and a bunch of other things. The whole preferred gait is/was the subject of a pretty substantial mass of truly excellent data by Hoyt, Taylor, Wickler and others, and (coincidentally) a lot of the research hordes utilized were even Arabians, happily for us. But, also applies to other breeds and species---I remember seeing video of an African lion trotting along on a treadmill back when I had Dr. Hoyt for zoology or physiology or something. FWIW, this is one of the topics I'm going to talk about at nat'l convention later this month, during the Friday talk on practical applications of recent research. It's a pretty cool body of research and VERY applicable to endurance horses. Dr. Susan Garlinghouse, DVM =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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