It is customary to call the type of move of a horse an allure. At the same time, horses have standard types of gaits, which differ from each other in the nature of the setting of the legs during movement, and most importantly - in speed.
The term "gait" itself came into Russian from French, where it means "gait". Horses have a wide variety of gaits, that is, the types of gait that experts in the field of horse breeding also divide into subspecies. Nevertheless, in general, the fastest gait is the canter.
Slow gaits
The step belongs to the slowest group of gaits. In this case, the horse rearranges its legs alternately, and the indicated sequence is cross: after the right front leg, the horse rearranges the left hind leg, and after the left front leg, the right hind leg. This type of movement is the most natural for a horse, as it is the most economical in terms of energy consumption for movement. The speed of movement with this type of gait can range from 3.5 to 7 kilometers per hour.
Fast gaits
The trot is a significantly faster type of gait, which involves the simultaneous raising of two of the horse's legs at once. In this case, the legs, as in the case of the step, are raised crosswise: thus, the right front and left hind legs or the left front and right hind legs will be in the air at the same time.
The average speed of a horse at a trot is about 12-13 kilometers per hour. However, it should be borne in mind that in the group of gaits, which are usually attributed to the trot, there are a large number of subspecies of the move. One of the variants of the classification of the lynx species is its division into quiet, medium and sweeping, which, accordingly, noticeably differ from each other in terms of movement speed.
Finally, the horse's fastest gait is the canter. With this type of move, at a certain point in time, the horse lifts all four legs off the ground and is actually in the air. A horse running at a gallop can reach speeds of up to 70 kilometers per hour.
At the same time, however, among gallops, as well as among trot-type gaits, it is customary to distinguish various subspecies, differing from each other in the speed that the horse develops. So, a slow canter, which experts sometimes call collected, arena or shortened, is characterized by a movement speed of about 20 kilometers per hour. Ordinary or medium canter, also denoted by the term "canter", allows you to reach a speed of about 40 kilometers per hour.
Finally, a fast gallop, synonymous with the terms "high-spirited", "extended" or "field", is a gait in which a horse can run at a speed of 60 to 70 kilometers per hour and even higher. It is the canter that is used as the basic gait in horse racing.
