For the record,I am no expert on gait.
The information offered here is my compiled and edited
understanding of what I’ve read, what I’ve been told, what I’ve
seen on video tape and still pictures, and what I’ve experienced
while riding my own horses. I welcome additional information
and different interpretations and happily confess that I am still
in the learning process.
In this installment I will be referring to two kinds of
trotting actions. One I’ll call a “hard-trot,” the other, of course,
will be the "fox-trot.”
The Hard-Trot
The hard-trot is the trot we are used to seeing on non-gaited
horses. When collected
it is the “sitting trot" of the English horse; when slowed down
it is the "jog” of the
western horse. The jog can be a pleasant gait for the rider, especially
if the horse
performing it is a talented individual with good conformation.
When speed and/or extension is called for in the hard-trot,
the rider will experience an
increased concussion as the paired legs strike the ground. To escape the
jarring effects
of the trot, a western rider will stand slightly in the saddle, allowing
ankles, knees and
thighs to take up the shock. An English rider will allow the horse's own
action to move
the rider up (and slightly forward) then down (and slightly back) in
what we know as
"posting." Posting is comfortable and not particularly tiring
when done correctly.
The hard-trot is a diagonal gait. Ideally, it is performed with
each diagonal pair of legs
working in exact unison.Thus the right foreleg and left hind leg leave
the ground, move
through their arcs of travel, and strike the ground in precisely the
same instant as each
other. The pattern is then repeated with the left foreleg and right hind
leg.
As one pair of diagonals strike the ground there is a count of
1, followed by an
infinitesimal pause, then a count of 2 as the other pair of diagonals
strike the ground.
That small pause is the period of “fly” in the hard-trot--when all
four feet of the horse
are off the ground and he is literally flying forward through the air.
When performed by
well-trained Arabians, Sadd1ebreds, or dressage horses, the fly period
of the hard-trot
is spectacular to watch.
However, the law of gravity being what it is, what goes up,
must come down..and it is
that same breath taking fall to the ground. That’s where the
“hard” in hard-trot comes
in.
The hard-trot is not only visually exciting; but it is also one
of the easiest gaits to
recognize and judge. [In my personal opinion, those are the two major
reasons why
hard-trotting horses, in the distant past, came to be preferred over the
then dominant
easy gaited horses known as palfreys.]
The Fox-Trot
The true, modern fox-trot, like the hard-trot, is a DIAGONAL gait.
Again, that means that the right foreleg is paired in its movement
with the left bind leg.
(In the illustration of the fox-trot on these pages this is represented
by the darkened pair
of legs.] The left foreleg, then is paired in it’s movement with the
right hind leg [pictured
by the non-colored legs].
The big difference between the hard-trot and the fox-trot is in
timing--the paired
diagonals do NOT move in perfect unison.
Consequently, instead of a two beat gait as in the hard-trot
the fox-trot has a four beat
gait Unlike the hard-trot in which the cadence is very precise and even,
the cadence of a
fox- trot is uneven Or broken. While you can count a good hard-trot...
”1-2-1-2-1-2,”
the closest you get to counting a fox-trot is a rapidly
repeated..”hunk-a-meat-and-two-potatoes.”
Since the diagonal legs of the fox-trot are not moving together
as a unit, they are...more
difficult for the eye of an observer to follow than the diagonals of a
hard-trot..more
difficult to describe... but much more comfortable to ride. (Having said
that, I will now
try to describe the fox-trot, oh fool that I am!)
A fox-trot is a trot in which the timing is such that the
foreleg of a diagonal pair of legs
leads the movement of the rear leg by a split second .
During the fox-trot there is no period of fly. There is always
at least one foot on the
ground, more often two feet, supporting the horse (and rider). [Indeed,
there seems to
be extremely brief periods in which there are 1 ½ and 2 1/2 feet on the
ground. This
occurs if you count the fraction of a second when a toe is breaking over
or the heel is
first touching ground as moments of support. These “moments” can
vary with the
coordination of the individual horse.] Without the period of fly the
horse can't fall out of
the sky--the hard jolt disappears. Video tapes of the fox-trot indicate
that there is little
change in elevation of the horses back at the withers--no significant up
and dawn motion-
- during the gait.
The fox-trot is easier on both the horse and rider than the
hard-trot. The fox-trot may be
compared to the walk of a human where there is always some bit of solid
support for the
body’s weight. The hard-trot is like a human's jog where there is a
period of fly followed
by a strong concussion. [Remember, more doctors recommend walking for
exercise than
jogging…is it any wonder that the Fox Trotter does so well in
competitive trail!]
In addition to the uneven cadence (probably because of it), the
fox-trot has periods of
both diagonal and lateral support...unlike the hard-trot which has only
diagonal support.
[ the drawings, supporting feet have a solid line drawn under them. The
dotted line
indicates the foot that is about to break over.] This mixed diagonal and
lateral support
can give the illusion that the horse Is pacing during certain sequences
of the fox-trot
(especially notice figures 5 & 6 and 10 &1). In my observation
the periods of lateral
support do not seem to be as long (I’m splitting seconds here) as the
periods of diagonal
support. Thus the majority of the support seems to be diagonal, just as
the majority of the
movement is diagonal.
It is important to remember that the fox-trot is a natural
gait. The action is neither exaggerated nor high. It is a very sure-footedgait.
While show horses are trained to
fox-trot with more extension and consistency and at faster speeds than
our trail horses,
the gaitis essentially the same. The speed of the modem fox-trot seems
to have blurred the
appearance of “walking in front and trotting behind” that used to be
the signature of a Fox Trotter.
I have illustrated the sequence (l-10) of the fox-trot as I
have observed it on my video
player in stop-frame mode. [If you are ambitious, you can animate
the illustration by
making a flip book out of it.] Study the illustration. Visualize the
motion not shown, the
in-between-drawings stages. [It would have taken between 20-30 drawings
to depict
that tiny movement...I don’t have the skill, or the patience!
Two stop-frames have been
skipped between each drawing.]
Now that you have a good image in you mind of what the fox-trot
is, the trick is to identify
it when it is occurring "live." I still struggle with that and
find myself going back to the VCR
slow motion (Well, I said I was still learning).
That's the fox-trot-here's the catch. Most of our Fox Trotters
are capable of hard-trotting
as well as fox-trotting. Many can amble or do the stepping pace. Some
will single foot or
rack. A few will do the old-time-fox-trot or fox-walk. Then there's the
"normal" walk,
flat-foot or speed walk, as well as the running-walk. Of course, we
could include the
canter, the gallop, and the run. That's TWELVE identifiable gaits!
Just to add a little interest, many Fox Trotters have their own
variations and combinations
of the gaits. Moreover, they seem to be able to slip in, out, and back
in to the various gaits
at will. (Toni just loves to confuse the heck out of me!) As you can
see, a discussion of
gait is not a simple matter.
