Hoofprints/footfalls on circles

[Naiad]

If you are doing a 20m circle in walk or trot and examined the hoofprints - would you expect the hoofprints for the inside hind leg to track up further (or move more forwards relative to the fore leg) vs. the oustide hind leg? I would guess perhaps this is the case, as the outside of the body is elongated/stretched relative to the bent/contracted inside of the body? Amigo and I continue to work on circles, both inhand at walk and under saddle. And it would be good to know what to look out for.

I am just trying to figure out what should be happening when one has the correct bend. I've wondered about this for some time, but never got around to posting. Sorry if this is a silly question and the answer should be obvious, but I can find nothing about this when I did a google search about 20m circles.

[ChrissieW]

If its a silly question, I want to ask it too, as its something I've been pondering with Minnie.     Since her injuries, I constantly monitor her movement on the ground, but am getting a bit confused as to what is normal and what is just normal for Minnie now and what is bad normal for Minnie now, if that makes sense!  Confused.com! 

[ros]

I think the degree to which the hind feet "track-up" depends on the degree of collection - as the horse becomes more collected his hind feet have to travel a shorter distance. That's one of the reasons people get confused about what true collection looks like.

For work on a circle the horse actually needs to be straight on the circle, so if you were looking from above, his outside and inside legs would be describing concentric circles, but the outside one would be bigger than the inside one. One thing to check for is that the inside hind (being the one you can generally see best  ) stays true to its own circle and doesn't cross under as it comes forward.

[Naiad]

For work on a circle the horse actually needs to be straight on the circle, so if you were looking from above, his outside and inside legs would be describing concentric circles, but the outside one would be bigger than the inside one. One thing to check for is that the inside hind (being the one you can generally see best  ) stays true to its own circle and doesn't cross under as it comes forward.

Can I follow up for clarification?

For the sake of argument, let's say we have a horse who is tracking up right into his front hoofprints when travelling straight.

Now put him on a circle. So if the outside part of the circle is bigger, would you expect the outside hind to reach/stretch a greater distance than the inside hind leg, so they both drop into the front hoofprints (so one leg stretches/reaches more than the other)?? Or would you expect the two hind legs to reach the same distance as one another, so the outside leg lands notably behind the outside front hoofprint relative to the inside hind leg which might still be able to land in the front hoofprint??

[ros]

No, I wouldn't be expecting the hinds to land in the prints of the fores. The footfalls of the outer and inner feet would be in accordance with the distance required to form the circle they're on. The inner hinds are making a smaller circles than the outer hinds. If you draw a wheel of the same width as a horse -with an outer circle and an inner circle -and the draw the spokes from the centre outwards, the footfalls of the outside and inside footfalls will follow the same pattern. The gap between the outside fore/hind footfalls has to be bigger than the gap between the inside fore/hind footfalls, so no, you wouldn't expect the hinds to step into the prints of the fores unless you were on a straight line.

Does that make sense? I'm sure there are lots of you guys out there who could explain it better! 

[Naiad]

Thank you! That is what I thought. Makes total sense.