Trotting vs cantering on roads.

[Mince Pie]

Following on from this post:

Re cantering on roads - there is a bit of a debate that this is less concussive than trotting. Me personally, I don't. But then since we've been using easyboots I think a bit of me may be heading over to the dark side as Spud is so much more confident on hard surfaces Shod horses feel very concussive to me now period, even in walk. I'm sure I'll get over myself.

This has been mentioned a few times and I wondered what everyone's opinions were, and if there were any studies done into this?

 

[Damnation]

There is an arguement that a fast punding trot does more damage then a slow collected canter on roads.
I personally just walk and do odd bits of controlled trot. But so long as the canter is slow and controlled, I don't see it being any worse then a normal trot?
As I said I just mainly walk. Never (Intentionally) cantered on the road.

 

[Jesstickle]

I don't canter on the road for fear of slipping! BH is such a clumsy sod we be down on our backsides in a flash! And that's without shoes

 

[Gilbey]

I can only say what I was taught years ago.
Its not the 'acking or the 'unting that does the 'arm,
Its the 'ammer, 'ammer 'ammer on the 'ard 'ard roads.
I have always stood by this and never had a problem.

 

[Karran]

I always wonder this when I see police horses. Especially after watching them charging at the rioters. How many of them ended up with sore legs as a result?

 

[Ginn]

Yes, studies have been done which explain the effects of surface and speed on the forces transmitted to the structures within the horse's leg.

Fundamentally the force applied to the hoof at the onset of stance - this is the force applied to the hoof as it strikes the ground - is determined by the mass of the hoof multiplied by the acceleration (or deceleration) that results from the impact. There will be 2 components to this deceleration. The first one is the speed of the hoof at the moment it meets the ground. This is because acceleration is the rate of change of velocity (speed) - so speed is an important factor. The second is how deformable the ground is - a softer surface will slow the hoof down slower than a hard one. So on, lets say tarmac (a hard surface), a hoof travelling at a fast speed will receive a bigger force than one travelling at a slower one (we are assuming the hardness of the surface doesn't change). Now for the clever bit - the speed of the hoof is typically determined by the speed of the horse (see Johnston et al 1991). Therefore a horse trotting slowly on a specified surface will receive less collision force than one trotting quicker on the same surface. So, one can argue that a horse cantering slowly will receive less impact force than one trotting at higher speed on the same surface.

Then it does get a bit complicated as the horse has clever force damping structures within the entire limb, but specifically the hoof. These reduce the amount of force transmitted through the hoof onto the skeleton. BUT the angle at which the hoof hits the ground will alter how much they are able to damp the force. So the amount of force transmitted up the limb is affected by other factors in addition to speed and gait of travel. Broadly speaking however, cantering on the roads at a much slower speed than a faster trot will have a lower impact force.

Interestingly, with regards to shoeing and force transmission: When the horse's hoof strikes the ground the impact force can be considered as two forces acting together: a horizontal ___ and vertical |. While a rubber shoe may well reduce the amount of vertical force, it may well INCREASE the amount of horizontal force compared to a metal shoe because it will reduced slip/stop the hoof travelling forward more quickly. So on roads one *could* (and I don't honestly know what the answer is without doing the experiment/seeing the results to support one way or other) argue that because the hoof slips more/comes to rest more slowly when a horse is wearing a metal shoe compared to a rubber one that infact the rubber shoe is infact potentially more detrimental. Just a bit of food for thought....

 

[Mince Pie]

Interesting about the shoes aspect as a barefoot horse will obviously not slip as much as a horse in metal shoes, so by that reckoning cantering slowly on a shod horse is better for the horses legs?!

 

[Ginn]

Erm, no, not quite. Lots of other factors to consider and as I said I'd need to see experimental results to say one way or t'other. There are many other factors, slip (or more correctly friction) is just one of them. But it is food for thought all the same. What we have to remember is that horses have evolved over centuries and this includes their feet. In some respects, yes, horses were never designed to wear shoes, metal/rubber/plastic/or otherwise. They also never evolved to work on tarmac. But thats not to say they wouldn't have evolved to work on hard, dry ground. But puuting a shoe on we are doing 2 things: 1) we add weight to the hoof which in turn will alter its dynamics so one might argue the lighter the shoe the better??? 2) We change the frictional properties of the the surface of the hoof that touches the ground.

As riders/owners we have to weigh up all the options. I have a tb with fairly good feet, unless I take her shoes off and then they wear down in no time, her heels collapse and they start to crack. Now I could argue that in nature she wouldn't have the option of wearing shoes so why bother but then I could also argue that in nature she'd probably not last very long because of this. So I choose to shoe her to keep her happy, comfy and healthy. BUT I do it in the knowledge that I am changing the above points and these in turn may have throw backs. There are lots of pros and cons regarding shoes and their materials. In an ideal world I would like to put my horse in super lightweight shoes that have the same material (hardness and frictional) properties of her actual hoof but for the moment such a thing does not exist.

 

[Maddie2412]

Interesting about the shoes aspect as a barefoot horse will obviously not slip as much as a horse in metal shoes, so by that reckoning cantering slowly on a shod horse is better for the horses legs?!

would disagree here imo just because my boy is fairly unstable when trotting on roads and slips a lot (and is shod on all 4, so i dont do much of this anyway) but when he has started to canter after spooking and takes a while to come back to me he is completely unstable and starts slipping and sliding left right and centre i agree it isnt much more concussive but the action can pre-dispose a lot more slipping.

 

[Mince Pie]

Yes totally agree, I wasn't being serious with my previous post

There are just so many factors to this, disposition of horse, type of tarmac, road nails, camber of road maybe!

 

[Kellys Heroes]

Just to add we asked our farrier about road studs for our 16.2hh ISH as she's quite clumsy and does slip a lot (only shod on front) - we don't trot much on the roads, only to make way for traffic at those one way things and never (intentionally!) canter. He refused point blank so put studs on her as he said the horse's hoof has a natural slip to it when it strikes the floor to absorb the shock and to have studs on, stops this natural slip and the force is then sent up the limb. How true it is I don't know, but we've always trusted him implicitly and I can see where he's coming from
K x

 

[Nollaig Shona]

I had one of those terribly over excited ponies when I was younger, every time I went out on the road her head would come up as she gawped at everything in the fields and she'd spend the entire hack doing this strange slow mo canter with her tail sticking straight up (I think she rather fancied she was an Arab!). Didn't make any difference how long we went out for, or how often. She was never lame in the years that I had her

 

[indigopony]

Why??Lots of factors to considers like the horses sore legs, shoeing fees for worn out shoes and horses safety Roads = cars. .Also damaging the road

 

[cptrayes]

Just to add we asked our farrier about road studs for our 16.2hh ISH as she's quite clumsy and does slip a lot (only shod on front) - we don't trot much on the roads, only to make way for traffic at those one way things and never (intentionally!) canter. He refused point blank so put studs on her as he said the horse's hoof has a natural slip to it when it strikes the floor to absorb the shock and to have studs on, stops this natural slip and the force is then sent up the limb. How true it is I don't know, but we've always trusted him implicitly and I can see where he's coming from
K x

A farrier has just been awarded a PhD on this very subject and your farrier sounds as though he has read it. He is correct.

 

[spookypony]

Interesting posts, Ginn!

Until such experiments have been run and the results are in, I suppose it's really "moderation in all things", as per usual! Barefoot "common wisdom" suggests that an amount of roadwork is a good thing, to encourage good hard growth. At the same time, we're warned against overdoing it, because of concussion. However, no-one seems to have very clear guidelines on how much (and at what gait) is helpful, and how much (and at what gait) is too much. I'm happy to trot short stretches on the road, even sometimes to canter for a short bit---pony shows no signs of finding the road slippery---and I hope as long as I'm not doing so day in/day out for kilometres at a time, he'll be fine.

 

[JessandCharlie]

A little off topic but talking to my trainer a while back about artificial surfaces and he said that a certain top show jumper had started to have an increased amount o lameness problems after having their school resurfaced. According to his vet, the surface in question was quite firm and 'holding' so when horses placed their hooves, the natural slip was totally gone, as the surface was designed to prevent horses slipping at all when jumping. Food for thought

J&C