A puzzle: the gallop in two time

[Kathy Johnson]

I'm reading a treatise on racehorses by Sainbel, 1789, for other research but I found a definition of the gallops of three times, four times and two times. I kind of get it until the gallop of two times, which I can't quite figure out. I'm hoping you can help.

The gallop of three times is the three beat canter. Sainbel does not mention the moment of suspension. I'm not sure if they couldn't see it or if it wasn't relevant to his discussion. On the right rein, the left hind is 1, the right hind and left front 2, the right front, 3.

The gallop of four times is in the order of walking. Again on the right lead, the left hind is one, the right hind is 2, the left front 3 and the right front 4. This is similar to positive D.A.P in which the diagonal pair is broken and the inside hind sets down before the outside front. Sainbel states that this gallop is regular, but confined, used in menage work and not very fast.

The gallop of two time is the one that is confusing to me. It is the fastest. He says that it is in the order of trot. On the right rein, the left hind and right front are 1. The inside hind and outside front are 2. I would assume the moment of suspension would be after 2, not after 1 then again after 2. But I am not sure. I will look at some racing photos to see if I can figure it out, but if anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

This may or may not help, brings up another issue, but it's interesting http://homepage.ntlworld.com/zareeba/galloping.htm

[Kirby's Keeper]

Hi Kathy,
It wasn't until the late 1800s that high speed photography was used to show the gallop. Until that point there were many interpretations of how the legs moved.

http://io9.gizmodo.com/7-things-we-lear ... -453528816

Although a friend's horse would move in a stiff legged 2 beat canter due to overwhelming tension. We called him the "pronged horn cantaloupe" . After very careful remedial training he now canters softly and correctly and is a pleasure to ride.

[Kathy Johnson]

Hi,

Yes, Muybridge is fascinating. I never did understand why the artists painted the horses in the outstretched stance, when the equestrians of the 1700s clearly knew the beats of the canter. They not only knew about the four beat canter, but they also knew about positive and negative DAP, although they called it by different names, a hasty hind leg (postive) and a slow hind leg (negative). Or Sainbel called the positive version the gallop in four time. They didn't need photography--they listened, heard and felt the beats.

This author Sainbel, was an equine veterinarian who studied horses closely, pre-dating Steinbrecht by almost 100 years. If he is sophisticated enough to understand the three and four beat canter, might he not know some things we don't know?

For a moment let's assume that perhaps he saw something we didn't or probably more likely he was looking at the same thing with a different eye. Let's assume the artists were on morphine or perhaps were entranced by the moment of acceleration and leave them out of the discussion for know. We talk about a lateral canter. Sainbel is talking about a diagonalized canter. Can it happen? If so, how?

[Josette]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFbhU5_fVao

My favorite American Pharoah video has a slow motion play in it. Maybe you can view this 2 beat gallop here?

[Kathy Johnson]

Tony watched that and said, "somebody sped that film up! No way that's real." Wow. I don't see anything overt , but if stop action a few times, I see diagonal pairs on the ground. It may be in the moments of acceleration, which would the fastest. I don't know. Tony called that burnout. I will go back at watch that about 100 times because it is so powerful.

[Josette]

Well here is the "Holy Sh*t" video where the previous video was taken. Compare the speed here. He is still fast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbJyUGaml1Y

[Srhorselady]

Since they didn't have slow motion photography and they did have coursing hounds, I think it would be very logical for him to have assumed that horses gallop like coursing hounds when moving at their fastest (ie two front feet together and two rear together). Since many artists portrayed the extended portion of a horses gallop this way I suspect it may have been a common belief. If you go back and look at the video of AP from a direct side view at the fastest part of his workout the gait does look that way. That could be considered 2 beat and it would be the fastest gallop. Several breeds of dogs ie gray hounds, afghans, Salukis, bedlington terriers, whippets, etc do move this way. However, what all of these dog breeds have in common is a roached back which allows this movement...

[Kathy Johnson]

That's very interesting about the hounds, and I know they have some extra gaits. I do think the artists were following some sort of tradition. I will look more closely at AP as well. Now, I've read a lot about Eclipse, about whom this book was written when he was autopsied. And he had a lot of interesting "flaws" that made them rethink flaws in a racehorse. I'll recheck to see if roach backed was one of them.

[lorilu]

There are horses who gallop with TWO moments of suspension. Double suspension gallop. The Equine class at CF studied it last year. Apparently Secretariat showed it.
http://www.j-evs.com/article/S0737-0806(15)00186-0/abstract

[lorilu]

https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/elsevier/31 ... iJ8b2l3w95

[Srhorselady]

The suspension phase of the gallop is known to be the most ground covering so it makes sense that a horse who could throw in some extra suspension phases would be faster. What I thought was interesting was that in that study it was seen only in the one furlough tests and not the longer tests. Obviously the extra burst of power and speed for a short time yet Secretariat, by today's definition, was a distance horse. I wonder if racing quarter horses show this characteristic? It would be interesting to see comparisons of the gaits of famous racers.

[Kathy Johnson]

Thanks, Lorilu! That is very helpful. It doesn't explain Sainbel (or I might still be confused), but it does explain early artists' rendering of the gallop,

[lorilu]

Srhorselady, I believe they studied horses at the OBS sales here in Ocala - so it was mostly sprints.