Re: wide gait in hind end

[Chaco L <ChacoL@aol.com>]

In a message dated 98-01-22 06:02:51 EST, Bierstedt@aol.com writes:

> The discussion of gaits got me thinking of a recently published book called
>  "The Nature of Horses," by Stephen Budiansky. In a section on the mechanics
> of
>  movement, the author says, "a medium trot is more energy efficient than a 
> fast
>  walk, and a medium canter is more energy efficient than a fast trot." He 
> says
>  that each gait has an optimal speed, which horses naturally tend to favor.
>  "When traveling a these optimal speeds, the energy required to move a given
>  distance is the same whether at the walk, trot, or gallop."
>  
The zoologist who conducted the treadmill studies cited in this book made
another interesting discovery:  That horses shift from a trot to a gallop not
at a fixed speed or degree of effort, but when "the peak forces on their legs
reached a certain critical level," in other words, when they felt a certain
degree of impact on their legs as they struck the ground.  The scientist
compared the force required to break a cannon bone to the force of this
impact, and found it to be a factor of three.  His conclusion is that shifting
from a trot to a gallop was the horses' way of minimizing the risk of injury.

An interesting book!  You can get it from amazon.com at a good discount.

Linda
San Francisco