Walk
The walk is a four-beat gait that averages about
Trot
The trot is a two-beat gait that averages about
The trot is the working gait for a horse and is the main way horses travel quickly from one place to the next, sometimes for hours.
Canter
The canter is a controlled, three-beat gait that usually is a bit faster than the average trot, but slower than the gallop. Listening to a horse canter, one can usually hear the three beats as though a drum had been struck three times in succession. Then there is a rest, and immediately afterwards the three-beat occurs again. The faster the horse is moving, the longer the suspension time between the three beats.
In the canter, one of the horse's rear legs – the right rear leg, for example – propels the horse forward. During this beat, the horse is supported only on that single leg while the remaining three legs are moving forward. On the next beat the horse catches itself on the left rear and right front legs while the other hind leg is still momentarily on the ground. On the third beat, the horse catches itself on the left front leg while the diagonal pair is momentarily still in contact with the ground.
Gallop
The gallop is very much like the canter, except that it is faster, more ground-covering, and the three-beat canter changes to a four-beat gait. It is the fastest gait of the horse, averaging about 25 to
Like a canter, the horse will strike off with its non-leading hind foot; but the second stage of the canter becomes, in the gallop, the second and third stages because the inside hind foot hits the ground a split second before the outside front foot. Then both gaits end with the striking off of the leading leg, followed by a moment of suspension when all four feet are off the ground. A careful listener or observer can tell an extended canter from a gallop by the presence of the fourth beat.
You missed the fascinating gait known as the "tolt" that is pretty much unique to Icelandic ponies believe it or not
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:T%C3%B6lt.jpg
horses and sailing...my tow least favourite past times!
ReplyDeleteA nice educational for the non-horsy members of your readership. I have noticed a number of horses being used to illustrate your posts over the last week or so.
ReplyDeleteCityunslicker, there is nothing to dislike about horses. Besides, we owe them so much - see http://www.horseracinghistory.co.uk/hrho/jsp/education/poem.jsp
Thanks James- my PhD is about the study of an army's politicla thinking, so knowing this stuff is not essential but even so this post was useful- its always nice to be able to imagine how fast the horses one's soldiers are riding are going. Cheers therefore for this!
ReplyDeleteBoys and girls, thanks for the links and the comments - I'll follow up on this for sure. Cityunslicker - don't ever change!
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