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[RC] Trot Question for the Engineers - k s swigartDot Wiggins said: 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? Coming from a dressage background which ascribes to the maxim "wide behind means heavy on the forehand" and from an engineering background which says the heavier on the forehand the more "braking" with the front legs do, I would say that wide behind is significantly less efficient (the more braking the front legs do, the more pushing the horse has to do to overcome that braking). If the horse steps up underneath itself with the hind foot having gotten the front foot out of the way before the hind foot comes forward (which is what horses that are using themselves well from behind do), then the horse is lighter on the forehand, the forehand does less braking with each stride and the horse does less work overall. If, on the other hand, the horse short strides from behind for fear of clipping itself on the front leg that it hasn't gotten out of the way quickly enough (which is what a lot of horses do when they aren't using themsevles well), then it probably is still better for the foot to be directly underneath the horse than out to the outside, but neither is a very efficient way of going. "Naturally wide behind is," for me, the equivalent of saying "natural heavy on the forehand," so I would avoid it in a prospect, and do my best to correct it as quickly as possible in a horse that I already owned. kat Orange County, Calif. :) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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