What Is Stride Efficiency?
Ok, I got a little carried away with the Buck Mountain Band. Downgraded to Grade II. Former fiddler and son of a fiddler here and so we do recognize fiddling. The Buck Mountain fiddler shows nice technique and musicianship and in contrast to the others a nice ability to double note his fiddle--two notes simultaneously--compared to the rest. The Dublin fiddlers were good also. Tough choice between the two. HOWEVER, all pales in wake of those world class musicians playing with Mountain Heart. Would we e.g. prefer the jock equivalent of Jim Van Cleve on our horse for today's race. There is a difference in ability that we need to spot.
How Jim Van Cleve became Jim Van Cleve is a similar inquiry to what I'm trying to do here. The passion of Jim Van Cleve for his craft:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqp-Sn_ecK8
"...wow, this thing rocks". If we could get our horse situation to that point!
Our rider is at the 4.5F with focus on stride efficiency. Last post ask Q how is stride efficiency got. In the usual form of belaboring detail on this blog, if we want to know how stride efficiency is got, do we have to first recognize what stride efficiency is?
And, what we're talking about is optimal stride efficiency for each horse with the starting point that I've yet to ride a horse that has the same exact stride as the next. While you might think that four legged animals all stride the same, when you get on board you quickly recognize this as untrue. Every horse has it's peculiar style which, in terms of optimal efficiency, is a complicating factor. Let's take a look.
Tom Ivers was big on stride efficiency noting that we'd like to see the horse be able to push off strongly with it's rear end simultaneously with the front in lifting up and forward with max reach of the front legs jaguar style. Butt down, front up and forward with reach! We've all seen these sort of slow mo vids. The efficiently ground flicking animal that seems to be flying through the air.
Is this really what happens with most of them? There are two kinds of stride for horses in terms of hoof to ground contact with the front legs. One of them is the "flicking" stride. The other is the "pounding" stride. The difference between the flicker and the pounder likely has to do with conformation, and may also have to do with such things as weight--the horse is simply too heavy to lift itself off the ground to flick--or whether the horse is left footed or right footed--unknown but I suspect left footed horses have a harder time flicking--or, simple habit and the way they learned to run as foals. Maybe purely genetic with some.
More important to note is that the slower strides are all "flicking" strides. Only when the horse get's past a certain speed does the slow flicking stride become the bounding or pounding race stride. There seem to be serious style changes at the following speeds: :15.5, :14, :13 and 12.5. The most dramatic changes come at :14 and :12.5. :14 is the transition into really fast work as opposed to the moderate stride of the the two minute gallop which is just an exaggerated slow ground flicking stride. At 12.5 the horse starts sprinting. I am unable to comment on strides that are faster than about :11.9 or :11.8. I'd suspect in those faster speeds most horses, for reason stated below, primarily change strides into ground pounding.
There are interesting differences in both front and rear leg motions at these various speeds and particularly in the sprinting gear. Next post.
Training:
November training implosion for various reasons. Will get into when we get the hypothetical horse around the track. A wow pasture romp today in wet weather.
How Jim Van Cleve became Jim Van Cleve is a similar inquiry to what I'm trying to do here. The passion of Jim Van Cleve for his craft:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqp-Sn_ecK8
"...wow, this thing rocks". If we could get our horse situation to that point!
Our rider is at the 4.5F with focus on stride efficiency. Last post ask Q how is stride efficiency got. In the usual form of belaboring detail on this blog, if we want to know how stride efficiency is got, do we have to first recognize what stride efficiency is?
And, what we're talking about is optimal stride efficiency for each horse with the starting point that I've yet to ride a horse that has the same exact stride as the next. While you might think that four legged animals all stride the same, when you get on board you quickly recognize this as untrue. Every horse has it's peculiar style which, in terms of optimal efficiency, is a complicating factor. Let's take a look.
Tom Ivers was big on stride efficiency noting that we'd like to see the horse be able to push off strongly with it's rear end simultaneously with the front in lifting up and forward with max reach of the front legs jaguar style. Butt down, front up and forward with reach! We've all seen these sort of slow mo vids. The efficiently ground flicking animal that seems to be flying through the air.
Is this really what happens with most of them? There are two kinds of stride for horses in terms of hoof to ground contact with the front legs. One of them is the "flicking" stride. The other is the "pounding" stride. The difference between the flicker and the pounder likely has to do with conformation, and may also have to do with such things as weight--the horse is simply too heavy to lift itself off the ground to flick--or whether the horse is left footed or right footed--unknown but I suspect left footed horses have a harder time flicking--or, simple habit and the way they learned to run as foals. Maybe purely genetic with some.
More important to note is that the slower strides are all "flicking" strides. Only when the horse get's past a certain speed does the slow flicking stride become the bounding or pounding race stride. There seem to be serious style changes at the following speeds: :15.5, :14, :13 and 12.5. The most dramatic changes come at :14 and :12.5. :14 is the transition into really fast work as opposed to the moderate stride of the the two minute gallop which is just an exaggerated slow ground flicking stride. At 12.5 the horse starts sprinting. I am unable to comment on strides that are faster than about :11.9 or :11.8. I'd suspect in those faster speeds most horses, for reason stated below, primarily change strides into ground pounding.
There are interesting differences in both front and rear leg motions at these various speeds and particularly in the sprinting gear. Next post.
Training:
November training implosion for various reasons. Will get into when we get the hypothetical horse around the track. A wow pasture romp today in wet weather.
posted by rather rapid at
11:05 AM
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