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Dot Wiggins wrote:
> Horses have different  ways of moving at the big trot.   Some spread 
> their hind legs to the outside and may even pass the fronts during the 
> stride.
> Some stride directly in line with the front leg flight path.
> > From a "power" point, which do you feel is more efficient?    Pushing 
> > off 
> with the hinds directly in line with forward motion, or pushing off 
> from a line outside the body mass?
> Which is apt to use the "top line" muscle/bone structure with the 
> least effort?
> I've watched a lot of horses, and ridden a few, with both actions and 
> have some feelings about it.  Just wondering what others think when 
> selecting a horse for endurance..
There is probably an answer that is correct some of the time, but in 
general the resonance of a mechanical system is determined by the entire 
systems - not by a few components. For example take a long piece of rope 
and tie a large weight on the end and swing it. That is a single 
pendulum. We know exactly how that will work. Now tie some more rope to 
the end of the weight and add another weight to the end. This is the 
classic double pendulum. It's resonance motion is very complex - in fact 
it is a prime example of "chaotic motion." This is a very simple 
mechanical system - only two degrees of freedom. Given all the levers 
and pulleys in a horse's body - they have 100's of degrees of freedom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_pendulum
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/DoublePendulum.html

It was always thought that Michael Johnson - the two time Olympic long 
sprinter had extremely poor form. They tried to change - it just didn't 
work well. They then did a details analysis digitizing video of him 
running and found out the way Michael Johnson ran was the most efficient 
for his mechanical configuration.

I've seen both types of horses. I've seen good horses with both types of 
motion and I've seen not so good horses with both types of motion. It 
just gets down to the most efficient motion - or "resonance." This would 
probably be a very small factor if I were looking for a horse.

Truman
--

“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, Nobel Laureate in Physics


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