You Can Pace but Can You Amble?
August 29, 2017 4:26 PM Subscribe
Two articles on horse genetics affecting their special gaits: the pace and the amble. The first article discusses the gene that creates the pace, such as the Tennessee Walker has. The second article Vikings Spread Smooth-Gaited Horses talks about the gene expressing the "amble," a gait new to me but can be seen in Frisians. The same research team found both these genes. Fascinating stuff.
Yes, the Tolt is mentioned in the article as well as its English name. And the Icelandic horses aren't the only ones with the gene variant, just the most obvious.
posted by MovableBookLady at 6:33 PM on August 29, 2017
posted by MovableBookLady at 6:33 PM on August 29, 2017
"Amble" doesn't seem to be quite the right word for that gait. Those horses look so anxious and flustered, like they're late for an important appointment but are trying to avoid a full-fledged panic run.
posted by maudlin at 9:09 PM on August 29, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by maudlin at 9:09 PM on August 29, 2017 [4 favorites]
Yeah it's not the right word. For 'pace' you want flugskeið, or 'flying pace', and for 'amble' you want tölt.
Incidentally I learned these in a Tumblr discussion last week about whether the fact that the fact that the flugskeið makes the horse's legs blur to an onlooker is the source of tales of Sliepnir having eight legs.
posted by HypotheticalWoman at 1:22 AM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
Incidentally I learned these in a Tumblr discussion last week about whether the fact that the fact that the flugskeið makes the horse's legs blur to an onlooker is the source of tales of Sliepnir having eight legs.
posted by HypotheticalWoman at 1:22 AM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
I read this tumblr post this morning. The post here answers one of my questions about it: the different gaits are genetic, not learned.
posted by snakeling at 2:34 AM on August 30, 2017
posted by snakeling at 2:34 AM on August 30, 2017
He believes Vikings pillaged English horses and sailed to Iceland with them. There, horses with the ability to amble became dominant as people bred animals that were easy to ride for long distances across terrain without roads.
Five speed good, four speed lunch.
posted by XMLicious at 2:43 AM on August 30, 2017
Can someone clarify the terminology in the first article a little for me? It first seems to suggest that all horses can walk, trot, and canter/gallop, only some can amble and only some can pace, but it then goes on to say that standardbreds either trot or pace. So pacers cannot trot after all? It says trotters have to be trained not to break into a gallop, but does that mean that pacers do not have to be so trained? It then talks about looking for a gene that divides pacers from nonpacers (so trotters, yes?) that also prevents trotters from breaking into a gallop? I don't follow this. So now trotters can be subdivided into gallop-prone trotters and non-gallop-prone trotters? Are the non-gallop trotters better than pacers for racing purposes? I feel like I'm missing something.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:25 AM on August 30, 2017
posted by Rock Steady at 7:25 AM on August 30, 2017
Okay, so with respect to Standardbreds, there's a lot of mythology about the trotting/pacing racers and what will happen if the horse is ever allowed or encouraged to gallop. Remember, this is a breed of horse developed for harness racing, and the expectation is that they should be trotting or pacing while still moving as quickly as a can. There's a persistent (and in my view, largely unfounded) fear that if you encourage a harness racing horse to gallop, when the horse is encouraged to move at top speed it will shift into a galloping gait instead of the trot or pace that works better under harness.
I'm going to pick up the article in a second, but I would lay good money that the idea that pacing prohibits a horse from galloping is.... weird. I've never heard about anyone who crosstrains ex-harness racers for other careers--which does occasionally happen--saying that they couldn't be encouraged to canter or gallop under saddle with a little encouragement.
I've always assumed that the 'nonstandard' gaits exhibited by several horse breeds are just down to slightly unusual conformational changes, and I'm pretty excited to pick up the paper. I've noticed myself that most of my dogs can be induced to pace rather than trot on leashed walks, especially when bored or impatient, so I've always absently thought that the presence or absence of a pace (or one of the odd intermediate gaits, like a running walk or a tolt) owes more to whether the gait is particularly conformationally comfortable and then practiced by the horse as it grows and moves than anything else. I look forward to finding out whether I'm right about that vague feeling!
posted by sciatrix at 8:34 AM on August 30, 2017
I'm going to pick up the article in a second, but I would lay good money that the idea that pacing prohibits a horse from galloping is.... weird. I've never heard about anyone who crosstrains ex-harness racers for other careers--which does occasionally happen--saying that they couldn't be encouraged to canter or gallop under saddle with a little encouragement.
I've always assumed that the 'nonstandard' gaits exhibited by several horse breeds are just down to slightly unusual conformational changes, and I'm pretty excited to pick up the paper. I've noticed myself that most of my dogs can be induced to pace rather than trot on leashed walks, especially when bored or impatient, so I've always absently thought that the presence or absence of a pace (or one of the odd intermediate gaits, like a running walk or a tolt) owes more to whether the gait is particularly conformationally comfortable and then practiced by the horse as it grows and moves than anything else. I look forward to finding out whether I'm right about that vague feeling!
posted by sciatrix at 8:34 AM on August 30, 2017
Oh, okay, so they're talking about this neuronal coordination gene--huh, that's fascinating. It's interesting that they're finding it in harness racers (especially trotters) and tolting horses, but it doesn't seem that anyone has much looked into America's own rich tradition of gaited saddle horses.
Tolting is, as I understand it, a little unusual for gaiting in that speed at the tolt is prioritized even above smoothness (which tends to be the top priority in the oldest American gaited breed tradition). I say oldest American gaited traditions because the most prominent American gaited breed is the Tennessee Walker, and relatively new "big lick" style most popular in show competitions right now relies on extensive (and often painful) training techniques to achieve, as well as unusual and probably abusive hoof trimming techniques involving maintaining very long hoof lengths and thick shoes on the horses.
That said, Tennessee Walkers of the older "flat-shod" variety are still very popular in the US, and as the cruelty involved in the big lick style has become more well known, "flat-shod" exhibitors have become more common. The gaits are not necessarily induced by the shoeing, either, and in an effort to publicize this many people will also publicize that their horses will happily produce a running walk barefoot as a way of marketing or expressing pride in the horse.
I can't say I've ever seen an American aficionado of the natural-style Tennessee Walking Horses brag about the speed of the running walk, though, only the smoothness. The draw is usually supposed to be more along the lines that riding these horses is comfortable no matter how long you're riding them, which is why they are particularly popular with hunters and trail riders. The gait looks a bit awkward from the ground, but it jostles the rider far less and doesn't require the rider to sit or post at the trot. That's why it's something you typically see prioritized exclusively in saddle horses, not harness horses.
By contrast, when the article refers to trotting versus pacing Standardbreds, they're referring to the orientation in which the horse moves its front and hind legs at speed. A trotting horse moves its left foreleg at the same time as its right hindleg, so that any upward or sideways motion in the trot is spread diagonally across its back in a more balanced manner. By contrast, a pacing horse moves its left fore and hind legs together and its right and hind legs together, which means that at high speeds it's effectively throwing the rider around much more than an equally fast trotting horse. You can see how much this rider on a pacing Standardbred is working to stay balanced on the horse, and pacing is typically discouraged in horses intended primarily for saddle work.
Perhaps a better analogue might be to American racking communities, who do prioritize some speed in a racking horse. You'll find people working with speed racking in Standardbreds, Saddlebreds, "spotted racking horses", Tennessee Walking horses, Rocky Mountain Horses, and several other breeds crossbred with these. As far as I can tell, racking originated out of a desire for a faster running walk and breeders prioritizing animals who could gait quickly and smoothly, in a similar but unrelated desire to Icelandic horse breeders. The gaits are apparently qualitatively different--the tolt is very similar to racking but smoothness is more prized in the tolt--but are otherwise very similar although the types of horse breeds in American racking communities are typically bred very differently and under different constraints than Icelandic ponies. If you look at American racking horses, they are aside from gait utterly unlike the little Icelandics
In general I am highly suspicious of the idea that all gaited horses trace their ancestry back to Icelandic tolters. Iceland has never been a particularly valuable exporter of horseflesh or had much of a historical international reputation, and the fact that many pacy horses can be encouraged to gait--including some Standardbred pacers bred for the track!--and that a common flaw in gaited breeds is horses who prefer to pace than gait. I can see the influence in Friesians, perhaps, because those horse breeders have at least historical geographic proximity. But American saddle breeds descend primarily from general saddle and harness light horses imported from the New World from French, English, and Spanish sources. It's more likely that this gaiting allele came in on purpose bred harness trotters and carriage horses who would have been highly prized as efficient working animals wherever they appeared--and wherever the mutation appeared!--than that it traces back to Icelandic ponies exported by Vikings.
And I see upon reading that paper that the paper is arguing that the gaiting mutations arose in English horses first which were picked up by Vikings and exported that way! I still find this dubious, but I'm on less firm ground when I try to think about Viking trade routes. It does not seem to me that horses are a particularly interesting or marketing commodity for a people who spend the majority of their time at sea--horses are large, unwieldy, tend to spook when first loaded onto a boat, and can panic and destroy the boat if you aren't careful. And they require extensive feeding and care until they can be delivered to their destination. If I was a Viking, the horses would have to be damn valuable for me to go to so much trouble to transport them, and it's just straight up easier to transport horses overland.
Honestly, I think it is far more likely that if there weren't multiple mutations in this allele, the mutant variant spread primarily from English horses to the European mainland over time and then spread via land that way. The fact that the mutation was found in English and Icelandic 9th century animals only shows that the Icelanders had gaited horses, not that they were necessarily spreading them anywhere.
God, that second article ends in a twee way, too--thank a viking for the gaited horse you're probably riding as a beginner? Most beginners learn to ride on whatever school ponies are convenient, and in much of North America that tends to be Quarter Horses, paints, Canadians, crossbred grade horses, sometimes older Thoroughbred ex-racers--not necessarily gaited horses, unless that's simply the animals you have access to. Pfft.
Pffft, I say.
posted by sciatrix at 9:37 AM on August 30, 2017 [8 favorites]
Tolting is, as I understand it, a little unusual for gaiting in that speed at the tolt is prioritized even above smoothness (which tends to be the top priority in the oldest American gaited breed tradition). I say oldest American gaited traditions because the most prominent American gaited breed is the Tennessee Walker, and relatively new "big lick" style most popular in show competitions right now relies on extensive (and often painful) training techniques to achieve, as well as unusual and probably abusive hoof trimming techniques involving maintaining very long hoof lengths and thick shoes on the horses.
That said, Tennessee Walkers of the older "flat-shod" variety are still very popular in the US, and as the cruelty involved in the big lick style has become more well known, "flat-shod" exhibitors have become more common. The gaits are not necessarily induced by the shoeing, either, and in an effort to publicize this many people will also publicize that their horses will happily produce a running walk barefoot as a way of marketing or expressing pride in the horse.
I can't say I've ever seen an American aficionado of the natural-style Tennessee Walking Horses brag about the speed of the running walk, though, only the smoothness. The draw is usually supposed to be more along the lines that riding these horses is comfortable no matter how long you're riding them, which is why they are particularly popular with hunters and trail riders. The gait looks a bit awkward from the ground, but it jostles the rider far less and doesn't require the rider to sit or post at the trot. That's why it's something you typically see prioritized exclusively in saddle horses, not harness horses.
By contrast, when the article refers to trotting versus pacing Standardbreds, they're referring to the orientation in which the horse moves its front and hind legs at speed. A trotting horse moves its left foreleg at the same time as its right hindleg, so that any upward or sideways motion in the trot is spread diagonally across its back in a more balanced manner. By contrast, a pacing horse moves its left fore and hind legs together and its right and hind legs together, which means that at high speeds it's effectively throwing the rider around much more than an equally fast trotting horse. You can see how much this rider on a pacing Standardbred is working to stay balanced on the horse, and pacing is typically discouraged in horses intended primarily for saddle work.
Perhaps a better analogue might be to American racking communities, who do prioritize some speed in a racking horse. You'll find people working with speed racking in Standardbreds, Saddlebreds, "spotted racking horses", Tennessee Walking horses, Rocky Mountain Horses, and several other breeds crossbred with these. As far as I can tell, racking originated out of a desire for a faster running walk and breeders prioritizing animals who could gait quickly and smoothly, in a similar but unrelated desire to Icelandic horse breeders. The gaits are apparently qualitatively different--the tolt is very similar to racking but smoothness is more prized in the tolt--but are otherwise very similar although the types of horse breeds in American racking communities are typically bred very differently and under different constraints than Icelandic ponies. If you look at American racking horses, they are aside from gait utterly unlike the little Icelandics
In general I am highly suspicious of the idea that all gaited horses trace their ancestry back to Icelandic tolters. Iceland has never been a particularly valuable exporter of horseflesh or had much of a historical international reputation, and the fact that many pacy horses can be encouraged to gait--including some Standardbred pacers bred for the track!--and that a common flaw in gaited breeds is horses who prefer to pace than gait. I can see the influence in Friesians, perhaps, because those horse breeders have at least historical geographic proximity. But American saddle breeds descend primarily from general saddle and harness light horses imported from the New World from French, English, and Spanish sources. It's more likely that this gaiting allele came in on purpose bred harness trotters and carriage horses who would have been highly prized as efficient working animals wherever they appeared--and wherever the mutation appeared!--than that it traces back to Icelandic ponies exported by Vikings.
And I see upon reading that paper that the paper is arguing that the gaiting mutations arose in English horses first which were picked up by Vikings and exported that way! I still find this dubious, but I'm on less firm ground when I try to think about Viking trade routes. It does not seem to me that horses are a particularly interesting or marketing commodity for a people who spend the majority of their time at sea--horses are large, unwieldy, tend to spook when first loaded onto a boat, and can panic and destroy the boat if you aren't careful. And they require extensive feeding and care until they can be delivered to their destination. If I was a Viking, the horses would have to be damn valuable for me to go to so much trouble to transport them, and it's just straight up easier to transport horses overland.
Honestly, I think it is far more likely that if there weren't multiple mutations in this allele, the mutant variant spread primarily from English horses to the European mainland over time and then spread via land that way. The fact that the mutation was found in English and Icelandic 9th century animals only shows that the Icelanders had gaited horses, not that they were necessarily spreading them anywhere.
God, that second article ends in a twee way, too--thank a viking for the gaited horse you're probably riding as a beginner? Most beginners learn to ride on whatever school ponies are convenient, and in much of North America that tends to be Quarter Horses, paints, Canadians, crossbred grade horses, sometimes older Thoroughbred ex-racers--not necessarily gaited horses, unless that's simply the animals you have access to. Pfft.
Pffft, I say.
posted by sciatrix at 9:37 AM on August 30, 2017 [8 favorites]
Rock Steady,
Yes, in racing Standardbreds either trot or pace. There are different races set up for pacers and trotters. They don't race against each other. They also aren't cross trained. Those that are trained to trot, race as trotters. Those that are trained with pacing in mind, race as pacers.
As for breaking, I think what the article means is that once pacers get moving (and if you've ever seen pacers on the track, they don't just go from a stop to a pace, they kind of have to work into the stride as they warm up behind the mobile starting gate) and get "on pace" and find their rhythm they are considerably less likely to break into a gallop than trotters. Part of that is natural--the legs just keep moving in the way they are moving--and part of that is aided by the harnesses and equipment they wear--essentially (and this is badly worded) there are straps to connect the legs on each side of the body so that they remain in motion together.
As sciatrix said, there is nothing (I'm aware of) to keep a Standardbred pacer from galloping around the paddock while at liberty, or even trotting across the field. It's more that they have one extra (apparently genetically preferred) gear.
As for trotters, moving from a trot to a gallop is typically the more "natural" progression in a horse's movement. It's like kicking the car into the next gear, if you want to think of it in those terms. Galloping will be the high gear, so as the horse goes faster/wants to go faster, that's the gear that is typically engaged. Just to put it in perspective, the record for the Woodbine Mile (one-mile long race by galloping Thoroughbreds at the Toronto-area track) is 1:31.75. The pacing record at Mowhawk (nearby harness track) is 1:46:4 and the trotting record is 1:50:4. (Ideally, I'd have the Woodbine harness records and the Woodbine Thoroughbred record, just to keep things consistent, but these are the first figures I could pull up. Additionally, I should note that T-breds and Standardbreds, even if they are running at the same facility, don't run on the same track. Each needs a different type of surface.)
Here's a chart that show the different gaits in a visual manner. Note that a trot is a two-beat gait. The pace (not shown) should also be two beats. The gallop is four beats.
posted by sardonyx at 9:42 AM on August 30, 2017 [2 favorites]
Yes, in racing Standardbreds either trot or pace. There are different races set up for pacers and trotters. They don't race against each other. They also aren't cross trained. Those that are trained to trot, race as trotters. Those that are trained with pacing in mind, race as pacers.
As for breaking, I think what the article means is that once pacers get moving (and if you've ever seen pacers on the track, they don't just go from a stop to a pace, they kind of have to work into the stride as they warm up behind the mobile starting gate) and get "on pace" and find their rhythm they are considerably less likely to break into a gallop than trotters. Part of that is natural--the legs just keep moving in the way they are moving--and part of that is aided by the harnesses and equipment they wear--essentially (and this is badly worded) there are straps to connect the legs on each side of the body so that they remain in motion together.
As sciatrix said, there is nothing (I'm aware of) to keep a Standardbred pacer from galloping around the paddock while at liberty, or even trotting across the field. It's more that they have one extra (apparently genetically preferred) gear.
As for trotters, moving from a trot to a gallop is typically the more "natural" progression in a horse's movement. It's like kicking the car into the next gear, if you want to think of it in those terms. Galloping will be the high gear, so as the horse goes faster/wants to go faster, that's the gear that is typically engaged. Just to put it in perspective, the record for the Woodbine Mile (one-mile long race by galloping Thoroughbreds at the Toronto-area track) is 1:31.75. The pacing record at Mowhawk (nearby harness track) is 1:46:4 and the trotting record is 1:50:4. (Ideally, I'd have the Woodbine harness records and the Woodbine Thoroughbred record, just to keep things consistent, but these are the first figures I could pull up. Additionally, I should note that T-breds and Standardbreds, even if they are running at the same facility, don't run on the same track. Each needs a different type of surface.)
Here's a chart that show the different gaits in a visual manner. Note that a trot is a two-beat gait. The pace (not shown) should also be two beats. The gallop is four beats.
posted by sardonyx at 9:42 AM on August 30, 2017 [2 favorites]
Yes, in racing Standardbreds either trot or pace. There are different races set up for pacers and trotters. They don't race against each other. They also aren't cross trained. Those that are trained to trot, race as trotters. Those that are trained with pacing in mind, race as pacers.
So the advantage gained by this genetic test is not that you can identify a race horse vs a non-race horse, but that you can identify which kind of race horse they are more quickly? That doesn't seem to be what the article is suggesting, but I am probably misinterpreting it. Thank you!
horses who prefer to pace than gait
I thought they were all gaits! Thank you so much for that very informational comment, sciatrix, but I feel like I'm in an Abbott and Costello routine here. Eff it, imma just ride off on my pegasus.
posted by Rock Steady at 11:08 AM on August 30, 2017
So the advantage gained by this genetic test is not that you can identify a race horse vs a non-race horse, but that you can identify which kind of race horse they are more quickly? That doesn't seem to be what the article is suggesting, but I am probably misinterpreting it. Thank you!
horses who prefer to pace than gait
I thought they were all gaits! Thank you so much for that very informational comment, sciatrix, but I feel like I'm in an Abbott and Costello routine here. Eff it, imma just ride off on my pegasus.
posted by Rock Steady at 11:08 AM on August 30, 2017
Gait is one of those slippery words that takes on slightly different meanings depending on who is using it and it what context.
A gaited horse is typically one of the breeds sciatrix mentioned above, a Tennessee Walking horse, a Paso Fino, a Saddlebred, a Missouri Foxtrotter, an Icelandic horse, etc., that has a natural inclination to use a pattern of movement other than the standard four (walk, trot, canter, gallop). That could be a pace or a tolt/amble, a rack, etc.
The way of describing how a horse moves its feet is referred to as the gait. As mentioned above, there are the four basic movements. As to whether somebody includes pace or tolt as a "gait" will depend upon where they live, what style they ride, what the local custom is, etc. Some will just call the additional movement pattern a fifth (or sixth) gait. Some will just refer to it by its name.
posted by sardonyx at 11:30 AM on August 30, 2017 [4 favorites]
A gaited horse is typically one of the breeds sciatrix mentioned above, a Tennessee Walking horse, a Paso Fino, a Saddlebred, a Missouri Foxtrotter, an Icelandic horse, etc., that has a natural inclination to use a pattern of movement other than the standard four (walk, trot, canter, gallop). That could be a pace or a tolt/amble, a rack, etc.
The way of describing how a horse moves its feet is referred to as the gait. As mentioned above, there are the four basic movements. As to whether somebody includes pace or tolt as a "gait" will depend upon where they live, what style they ride, what the local custom is, etc. Some will just call the additional movement pattern a fifth (or sixth) gait. Some will just refer to it by its name.
posted by sardonyx at 11:30 AM on August 30, 2017 [4 favorites]
Yeah, sorry, I was picking up gaited-horse terminology there--in which case, whatever the "gait" that gets the honored unmarked state is*, it's whatever the breeders want to ride and are therefore focusing on, which is effectively never pacing. Usually breeders in breeds capable of producing multiple gaits (e.g. Tennessee Walkers who can sometimes be induced to both produce a running walk or a rack) will specify the movement patterns they mean. It's generally assumed that all horses regardless of breed are capable of walking, trotting, cantering and galloping, at least at liberty--although as I mentioned earlier, some gaited breeds and harness breeds cherish the misconception that encouraging a horse to gallop, canter, or trot either under saddle or under harness will completely ruin the gaited behavior.
In that sentence, I should probably said "horses who prefer to pace rather than running walk or rack."
*in the US, usually running walk or racking
Worth noting that as far as I can tell, a rack is much more similar to a tolt than anything else--just a hair less "fluid," at least according to Icelandic partisans. The gaits are otherwise identical, just by different names. By contrast, running walks and the "foxtrot" of a Missouri Foxtrotter are actually different movement patterns and so are closer to inherently different gaits. I haven't figured out what is going on with Paso Fino or the other Spanish breeds that are sometimes gaited yet; I've been thinking about the breed families native to the Southeastern US.
By the way, of the four widely accepted gaits used by all horses, two--the canter and the gallop--are effectively the same movement pattern, but one is fast enough that the horse routinely gets all four feet off the ground vs. always keeping one foot on the ground. The movement pattern is otherwise identical. (This is why a gallop is also called a "suspension gallop", and why the pattern of movement used by a greyhound--which is fully airborne at two points in the motion pattern, not one--is sometimes called a "double-suspension gallop.) Walking and trotting are both very different, though. Splitting cantering and galloping is more of a historical convenience than an actual Thing on a neurology-of-motion level.
Horses are not the only species with gaits, incidentally. Humans have at least three natural gaits: running, swimming, and walking. (Humans, of course, can be induced to produce many, many more movement patterns. But those are the relatively hardcoded ones. Note that horses do not have a "swimming" gait that is qualitatively different from land-based gaits; swimming horses are effectively trotting through the water.) I mentioned that my dogs can be convinced to pace in some circumstances, and almost all dogs are capable of walking, trotting, and galloping--with some, mostly sighthounds with unusually flexible spines, also having access to that double-suspension gallop. In fact, most neurological research currently done on gaits that I'm aware of uses C. elegans nematode worms as a model species! They apparently have a 'swimming' gait that is used in fluid and a 'crawling' gait used on more viscous substrates.
Have I thoroughly confused the shit out of you yet?
posted by sciatrix at 2:37 PM on August 30, 2017 [4 favorites]
In that sentence, I should probably said "horses who prefer to pace rather than running walk or rack."
*in the US, usually running walk or racking
Worth noting that as far as I can tell, a rack is much more similar to a tolt than anything else--just a hair less "fluid," at least according to Icelandic partisans. The gaits are otherwise identical, just by different names. By contrast, running walks and the "foxtrot" of a Missouri Foxtrotter are actually different movement patterns and so are closer to inherently different gaits. I haven't figured out what is going on with Paso Fino or the other Spanish breeds that are sometimes gaited yet; I've been thinking about the breed families native to the Southeastern US.
By the way, of the four widely accepted gaits used by all horses, two--the canter and the gallop--are effectively the same movement pattern, but one is fast enough that the horse routinely gets all four feet off the ground vs. always keeping one foot on the ground. The movement pattern is otherwise identical. (This is why a gallop is also called a "suspension gallop", and why the pattern of movement used by a greyhound--which is fully airborne at two points in the motion pattern, not one--is sometimes called a "double-suspension gallop.) Walking and trotting are both very different, though. Splitting cantering and galloping is more of a historical convenience than an actual Thing on a neurology-of-motion level.
Horses are not the only species with gaits, incidentally. Humans have at least three natural gaits: running, swimming, and walking. (Humans, of course, can be induced to produce many, many more movement patterns. But those are the relatively hardcoded ones. Note that horses do not have a "swimming" gait that is qualitatively different from land-based gaits; swimming horses are effectively trotting through the water.) I mentioned that my dogs can be convinced to pace in some circumstances, and almost all dogs are capable of walking, trotting, and galloping--with some, mostly sighthounds with unusually flexible spines, also having access to that double-suspension gallop. In fact, most neurological research currently done on gaits that I'm aware of uses C. elegans nematode worms as a model species! They apparently have a 'swimming' gait that is used in fluid and a 'crawling' gait used on more viscous substrates.
Have I thoroughly confused the shit out of you yet?
posted by sciatrix at 2:37 PM on August 30, 2017 [4 favorites]
personlookingatmath.gif
posted by Rock Steady at 3:21 PM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Rock Steady at 3:21 PM on August 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
I found this article which has a slightly clearer description and a link to the paper.
“It seems that besides enabling ambling and pacing, this Gait Keeper gene seems to also inhibit transition from the trot to the gallop”.
And another. This one says that Standardbreds with only one copy of the gene had better canters and better trot-canter transitions than those with two copies.
They get eliminated in a race if they canter, so difficulty transitioning to a canter might allow a faster trot (or pace) to be held without breaking into the faster movement. And that might affect trotters more than pacers since it's already awkward to go from a pace to a canter.
posted by sepviva at 7:19 PM on August 30, 2017 [3 favorites]
“It seems that besides enabling ambling and pacing, this Gait Keeper gene seems to also inhibit transition from the trot to the gallop”.
And another. This one says that Standardbreds with only one copy of the gene had better canters and better trot-canter transitions than those with two copies.
They get eliminated in a race if they canter, so difficulty transitioning to a canter might allow a faster trot (or pace) to be held without breaking into the faster movement. And that might affect trotters more than pacers since it's already awkward to go from a pace to a canter.
posted by sepviva at 7:19 PM on August 30, 2017 [3 favorites]
I gleefully participated in the Brooks Equine Genetics Lab Gait Study with my big bay guy, my bet being firmly laid on Multiple Mutations to win, Viking Ancestor left at the gate..
I am BlueHorse, and my Fox Trotter and I approve of this post.
posted by BlueHorse at 8:59 PM on August 30, 2017 [4 favorites]
I am BlueHorse, and my Fox Trotter and I approve of this post.
posted by BlueHorse at 8:59 PM on August 30, 2017 [4 favorites]
Stroll, my steed! Stroll like the wind!
posted by aspersioncast at 10:52 AM on August 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by aspersioncast at 10:52 AM on August 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
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