re: speeds at various gaits

[Erika R Achberger <eachberg@sophia.smith.edu>]

Just a comment on something Angie wrote: that a hand gallop is probably
anaerobic;  I don't purport to be an expert on this, but according to a
lecture that I heard at Canterbury Downs in Minnesota given by a professor
at the U of M Vet School, it is pretty hard to get a horse doing anaerobic
work.  Their lungs are so efficient that it takes an all-out gallop to get
this, if I remember correctly.  They dump also all these extra red blood
cells (from their stash in some organ) into the blood and can carry
something like twice the amount of oxygen to the tissues, and thus keep
the metabolism aerobic for a much wider range of activity than other
inferior athletes like us.
	Also, another interesting thing she said was that at most gaits,
i.e. walk, trot and canter, the horse is only using a minimal amount of
his/her musculature;  that only in the gallop is the horse drawing from
all his/her reserves and employing all the muscle groups.  -Eka