<< 3) This question is for any of you standardbred people out there. I
am curious as to what is the gait requirement for a 'trotter' in
competition, because if all (or many) of the horses are disuniting the
diagonal, clearly 'trotters' are not required to actually trot. Is the
requirement just that they not canter/gallop? Or is it that they have
to appear to be trotting, even if a close analysis of their gait in slow
motion reveals that they aren't trotting at all?
kat >>
Stndardbreds have to either trot or pace--if the horse gallops, or changes
from one gait to another, it has to be pulled back to lose ground until it
gets back on gait.
Positive dissociation is a matter of a tiny fraction of a second's advaced
contact of the hind foot--both at the pace and at the trot. Dr. George Pratt
wrote a lot about it in the 70's. Sitting behind a Standardbred, it's just
barely audible--in slomo video it's very easy to see. Pratt wrote up a
formula that describes how much more efficient positive dissociation is. Also
talked about how much more powerful, but more costly energetically, the
rotary gallop is. The rotary gallop is what some show folks call
"crossfiring". In Standardbreds, crossfiring is a whole 'nother thing. The
rotary gallp would go in this kind of sequence:RR,LR,LF,RF, with interference
possible as the RF recovers and the RR reaches forward.
ti