Kingsley - length of stride. October 2010 vs January 2011

Being a biomechanics geek as I am I had a little play with stills from the video footage.

Photo 1. Top October 2010. Bottom January 8th 2011

Photo 2. Top October 2010. Bottom January 8th 2011

His movement in walk used to have quite a distinctive character. It would be either pottery and short strided or very large and very unbalanced. He had disturbed medio-lateral balance of his feet (that is when the hoof wall on the inside of the leg is a different hight than the hoof wall on the outside of the leg). If you looked at him from the front he would look as if he was "paddling" sideways before allowing his feet to land. It was a peculiar way of going. He is a little croup high but the way he moved would make you think his withers are about a meter beneath the croup line!
One of the things I am watching with him (and there are plenty!) are the changes to the length and evenness of the stride in walk. In October 2010 he made shorter steps with his right fore (although this sometimes changed to the left fore). One fore leg was almost always striding shorter than the other.

A little legend to my creative lines ;)
Yellow Photo 1: Front limb angle
Red Photo 1: Distance in between the knees (within the yellow lines) in a relaxed walk stride
Pink Photo 1: Toe to Toe distance

I measured the above on the January photo (bottom on Photo 1 and 2) and copied the lines onto top image (in Photo 1)

Photo 2 is just a simplified version with lines running down. Now, I know it's not super accurate and hardly a scientific paper but I think the changes are rather great!

Another thing: look at the way the pastern joint and fetlock absorbs the movement on October Photo (rigid joint, not much give) and January (plenty of 'spring').

I'm dying to see the trot footage!