Endurance Movement

[Sally Aungier <aungish@UNOS.org>]

I posed the question about Arabs moving wide behind to Dr. Clayton and
this is her response

Sally Aungier

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Hilary M. Clayton 
> Sent:	Thursday, February 11, 1999 8:56 AM
> Subject:	Re: Gait Question
> 
> Dear Sally:
> 
> Thanks for your message. I don't know why well conditioned Arabians 
> move with a straddling gait but I can hazard a guess. I think its 
> related to the need to avoid forging or over-reaching without wasting 
> energy in projecting their body into a high suspension.
> 
> As I explained in my talk, one way to avoid interference is for the 
> horse to project its body high into the air during the suspensions, 
> which allows the horse to cover a long distance during the suspension 
> because he stays airborne for longer. In dressage horses this is a 
> desirable type of movement because the lift gives the impression of a 
> big, floating stride. However, there is a compromise between the 
> benefits of a long suspension in terms of increasing the stride 
> length and the energetic cost of using this type of movement.
> 
> I suspect that endurance horses find it more economical to sacrifice 
> the lift (and long suspension) for a stride that has less up and down 
> motion and hence uses less energy in providing vertical velocity.
> 
> However, they still need to avoid interference, hence the need to 
> straddle the hind limbs outside the forelimbs.
> 
> Hilary
> Hilary M. Clayton
> McPhail Dressage Chair in Equine Sports Medicine
> Large Animal Clinical Sciences
> College of Veterinary Medicine
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48824-1314
> 
> Phone: (517) 432-5630
> Fax: (517) 432-3442