About the Research
By Paul Roberson

You may soon be able to find out how close the movement of your horse is to the movements of previous Grand Champions, how smooth the ride will be and much more about how your horse moves. Researchers in the Department of Animal Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville have started to look at how the Tennessee Walking Horse moves. These researchers aren’t just using their eyes. They have adapted technology used in human movement studies to the study of horse movement.

Most studies of horse movement have been conducted looking at four gaits: the walk, the trot, the pace, and the gallop. There is very little scientific data that describes how the Tennessee Walking Horse performs the running walk. According to some people, the running walk of the Tennessee Walking Horse is a faster version of the walk. Until recently it would have been hard to prove otherwise. The reason for this is that most research looking at horse motion compares the patterns of how the hoofs land on the ground. The patterns of the walk and the running walk are in general the same. The researchers at the University of Tennessee have been able to show that hoof patterns do not provide the whole picture of horse movement. By using the newly adapted technology to study the movement of the Tennessee Walking Horse they have identified several differences between the walk and the running walk.

Want to learn more? Read Part 2 in the 'About the Research' series.