ANALYSIS OF THE PASO FINO
By Fernando Montealegre R.
INTRODUCTION
Since I knew Paso Fino horses, I have been astounded with their form at walk,
by their smoothness and harmony as well as by the rapidity of their movements.
Enlivened I felt growing my curiosity each time I saw a horse that moved with
an astonishing rapidity, printing to its gait the stamp of its brio and vivacity,
but carrying on its back a rider that seemed hung by invisible threads, that kept
him static, indifferent to the roar produced under his seat.
I did not realize my amazement when I heard people talking about this topic, assuring
that a horse was moving by laterals, making it in eight beats; where an unskilled
eye as mine, only appreciated a broadside of very quick and rhythmic treads, but
impossible to distinguish on the moving.
Encouraged by these incomprehensible matters for me, I proposed myself to find
the answers to these and other similar questions. I looked up the books and
magazines that were trying this topic and I looked up information that I could
use to form my own opinion about this topic.
The most difficult part to be understood was the explanatory graphics
of the eight beats or movements, they were not oriented enough to explain the harmony
and smoothness that I was eagerly seeking to understand.
QUESTIONS
Determined to find a way to decipher this mystery, I came back to read again
books and magazines, to check notes and get opinions, but from
a different perspective this time.
I attempted to discover under the light of a technical point of view :
- How come a horse did to have a harmonious looking in its gait.
- What the reason was to, in spite of executing movements very much complex than
those done by a trotting horse, have its rider astonishingly more still.
- What a sequence followed the movement of its limbs to give that
pleasant sensation of continuous movement, without jumps of any kind and
where its hoofs touched the soil with extraordinary regularity and synchronicity.
PREMISES
To continue with my study, I consider the recognized basis all over the sources
that I consulted:
- There are eight movements or beats that make up a complete cycle.
( Which, for demonstration purposes I will number 1 thru 8).
- These eight movements are reduced to four, performed alternatively,
once on the right side ( 1, 2, 3, and 4) and then on the left one ( 5, 6, 7 and 8).
- In terms of the supports, or hoofs on those the horse is sustained, there are two kinds:
double (or on only two hoofs) and
triple (or on three hoofs).
- During the eight movements, there are four triple supports (1, 3, 5 and 7),
alternated with four double supports (2, 4, 6 and 8).
- During the four triple supports, there are two of them executed by one foreleg and two
hindlegs(1 and 5), alternated with two by one hindleg and two forelegs (3 and 7).
- During the four double supports there are two executed by one foreleg and one opposite
side hindleg (2 and 6), alternated with two by one foreleg and one hindleg of the same side
(4 and 8).
- During the diagonal supports (2 and 6), the foreleg and the opposite side hindleg in the air, are
located inside the supports.
- During the lateral supports (4 and 8), the foreleg and the hindleg from the same side in the air,
are located outside the supports.
STARTING POINTS
Starting with what I had gathered, I tried to discover what I was lacking for.
For this reason, I , and then attempted to prove them with
the theories that would let me state the following :
- Analyzing the graphics, exposed by the consulted authors about the decomposition
of the movement, they all agree with the existence of eight beats or times.
- Each hoof has five recognized times with support in land (or impulse phase), and
three aerial (or recovery phase).
See times. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Course with silhouette
- Considering the displacement of the horse, each extremity advances by the air
in three of these eight times, in the sense of the movement of the horse.
On the other side, in the impulse phase, once the hoof is put on the floor,
this remains there without amending its support and is the body which is displaced,
giving the impression that the hoof is moving in opposite sense; this happens
in the other five movements.
- If the horse is really soft for its rider, it must be other factor to consider:
the horse must be well balanced; in other words, its own weight and the other of its rider
always should be correctly balanced. As a result of these considerations,
I suggested the possibility that in the triple supports, the foreleg or hindleg of
simple support, must be found in the middle of its course or aplomb point (3),
while the two feet or forelegs of the double support, should be in extreme opposite
positions (1 and 5).
- If the repeated cycle is compound by eight movements and if the treads
are synchronized, and the horse have four feet, it is concluded that each two
movements must be produced the contact of a hoof with the floor.
- According to the already established supports, in a triple
support, the unique hoof that is in the air is the one which must fall immediately, and so that
is present that
triple support (1, 3, 5 or 7), in that moment it must fall a hoof, because in the
previous there was only a double support (2, 4, 6 or 8).
The eight movements, in which the consulted authors agree, are reduced to four
alternatively repeated beats, by the right side and the left one;they are, in their
order of execution, regarding their supports in the floor and the relative position that
the hoofs should keep among them, the following:
(To see Explanations to the Graphics)
Eight Movement Animation.
GRAPHICAL COMPROBATIONS
Shortened Movement
AND ... WHAT ABOUT TROCHA ?
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