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From time to time there is a new theory proposed, but I didn't know how 
much science went into them. From your post it is as I expected - most 
personal observation. Now observation is not a bad way to design an 
experiment which will be tested, but it is not the good hard scientific 
analysis that will be needed.

Among the many problems in addressing this issue is the tracing of 
parentage. It is only within last 10 years that the TWH for example has 
been blood tested for the establishment of partentage. And I suspect 
before that - particularly back in the early days when the breed was 
being developed - there was a whole lot of paper shuffling going on. I 
suspect it is also ture in other breeds. Up to the early 90, many gaited 
breed registries were still 'open,' e.g. racking horse.

It is an interesting question and the answer is most likely very complex 
and has to do with both wiring and conformation.

Actually an even more interesting question would be to look at it across 
the animal kingdom. Most camels pace. Some dogs will pace. There have 
been some interesting papers written on the conformation of an animal 
and predicting the stable periodic orbits of it's motion and in some 
cases they could predict if an animal was more likely to pace than trot. 
To some extent - it may boil down to the "law of least action" that is 
what gait at a particular speed minimizes the "action" integral. That is 
it might get right down to the physics of the particular biomechanical 
makeup of the animal. So little time - so many interesting questions to 
address.

Truman

Rosalie Marley wrote:

> Based on the correspondence with Dr. Bailey, I think any "gait genetics"
> that is currently being written about is based on private experience,
> theories or models.  They are steps to understanding, perhaps, but they are
> not necessarily the whole or real picture.
>
> Rosalie Marley
>
>  

>  


--

“It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how 
smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong” Richard 
Feynman



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