Collection in the passage and piaffe of Spanish Purebred horse. A preliminary report

Abstract

Passage and piaffe of two Spanish Purebred stallions, one of them (I) previously judged as having poorly collected gaits and the other (II) performing correctly collected gaits, were recorded by normal-speed videography (frame rate 25 Hz) with the aim of checking some variables considered interesting in the assessment of horses moving at collected gaits. Angular variables were measured as maximal, minimal and angular range of motion values. There were more differences between the two horses at piaffe than at passage. Horse II had shorter diagonal lengths than horse I at passage. At piaffe, the angular ranges of motion of the hip joint, the hock joint, and the hind fetlock joint were greater in horse II. At piaffe the head-neck angle, the back inclination angle and the back-pelvis angle were also different and should be considered of interest in biokinematic studies of horses moving at collected gaits.