I was reading that Why do some dogs walk by moving both legs on one side of the body at the same time, while others use diagonal pairs? I know something about that, sort of…
but anyways, Horses trot and pace too, some breeds (Like standardbreds) are bred to pace for the racetrack and stuff. They usually go faster, and smoother. But, this gait doesn’t come natural in horses and they have to wear hobbles in this unique gait. Most horse will trot. however, in horses these gaits are not acheived by walking, but by troting. a trot is a faster kind of walk with bounce. there are four major gaits- Walk, trot, canter, and Gallop. although pacers (Standardbreds) are often called trotters, they pace by moving their right and left legs in unison.
Banana_tree
I saw a tree,
it was a banana tree.
I wanted a banana,
from the banana tree.
So I kicked the tree,
and a banana fell.
Sciddly doo dop dee
I used to have two dogs; both from the same litter, but one had short hair and long legs while the other had long hair and short legs. I used to observe my dogs and the other dogs running around the neighborhood (really, out in the country). They were like this big gang of dogs… God knows what trouble they were getting themselves into… but I digress. The short legged dog could never keep up with the pack and often wandered back home alone (I always felt sorry for him). Now we lived next to a rancher who raised and trained race horses and it was pretty easy to sit and watch the horses train - which is what the short legged dog often did. Then one day I happened to observe the dog pack out terrorizing the neighbors and to my amazement, the short legged dog was leading the pack. It was at this time that I noticed that he was running distinctively different than the other dogs. The rest of them were ‘pacing’ and he was trotting just like a race horse. It actually looked more like a full out gallop where he spent about 50% of the time completely airborne.
Now I’m not saying that this dog watched the horses and learned how to run faster; I couldn’t swear that he didn’t run with a natural trot before he started watching the horses. However I can say that after I took notice, I found that none of the other dogs ran like he did. He really ran like a short legged, long haired, race horse.
We’ve discussed this before at length. Not sure if it’s in the MB archives, yet. I had suggested that the correct term is “ambling” for both legs on one side to move together instead of alternating. Camels do this (and many of the dogs in Jamaica, for some reason). A horse expert chimed in with a whole lotta terminology for us.
Jill
