Trot or Pace?

[RMB54]

Is either gait, trot or pace, more susceptible to injury or soundness problems?

[Ramone]

Trotting is a far more taxing gait. Historically trotters have been 2 wheel (2 hoof) drive and pacers have been 4 wheel drive. Trotters used to derive almost all their forward impulsion from their hindquarters and the showy front feet only really served to keep their chins from scraping on the stonedust.
It's interesting that the modern trotters are far more like pacers with efficient and tidy front gaits and the destructive forces from speed are more evenly spread fore and aft. It follows that their useful careers might be expanded.
I'm a trotting person through and through but the pacing gait is much more suited to high speed than trotting.

[Fuguzzi]

Pacersd - the individual use of each leg "protects" trotters more. Pacers suffer far more bowed tendons especially back in my day because of the direction in which we race and the pulling motion on their right side in the turns. That is why i have found across the board pacers almost always bow in the right front. im sure many of my fellow horseman will attest to this. I have also found that more pacing bloodlines seem to be susceptible to the same problems than trotting bloodlines . Ralph Hanovers , ie., all fucked up in back . Hips, Back, stifles, HOCKS.  Jate Lobels suffered alot of tendon and suspensory issues traditionally. Lots more I could add. Let's see what others have to say.

[Fuguzzi]

Trotting is a far more taxing gait. Historically trotters have been 2 wheel (2 hoof) drive and pacers have been 4 wheel drive. Trotters used to derive almost all their forward impulsion from their hindquarters and the showy front feet only really served to keep their chins from scraping on the stonedust.
It's interesting that the modern trotters are far more like pacers with efficient and tidy front gaits and the destructive forces from speed are more evenly spread fore and aft. It follows that their useful careers might be expanded.
I'm a trotting person through and through but the pacing gait is much more suited to high speed than trotting.

I have little idea what you are talking about and I don't think you are answering his question. I would die if need be completely disagreeing with your assertion trotting is more taxing. ALL CREATURES WITH FOUR LIMBS TROT NATURALLY EVEN HUMANS! Indeed as we walk for ward, we swing our right arm forward as we move our left leg forward and vice versa. Animals walk on the trot, not the pace, at least by design.

[Fuguzzi]

Also we look for trotters to "roll" more naturally at the knee. Pacers go far more stiff legged at the knee often causing more soreness to their lower two carpal joints. ( knee )

[Generation XYZ]

Interesting commentary. I to prefer trotters over pacers. Although its my opinion that modern trotters and pacers are equally susceptible to issues at the knees, ankles , and hocks.  The speeds they endure today compared to 20 years ago, and longer, is far harder on the skeletal structures than of the past.

[Ramone]

Fuguzzi unfortunately has fallen into a common trap by asserting that trotting is a natural gait. The problem is that trotting is not a natural gait at harness racing speeds. In simplest terms a horse would escalate from a walk to a trot, then to a canter and finally to a gallop as the need for speed is increased.
Selective breeding has dramatically increased the speed range of the trotting gait but at the high end it's anything but natural.
As a side note, did you know that Paul Revere rode a pacer on his ride to immortality? Pacing is not as unnatural as you think.

[Fuguzzi]

Dont be insulting. I trained and raced horses for 40 years. Had some very good success. AND I BELIEVE IN WHAT I HAVE SEEN. I was pretty darn lucky when it came to unsoundness. I jogged slow and trained light. Mostly ages horses. I wasn't a baby/stakes race guy and I used the VET VERY LIGHTLY.  That aside, trotting, the natural movement of front and back legs diagonally IS a natural gate to all four legged creatures. End of discussion.

[Ramone]

The tell-tale sign of repeating untruths is when a person says "I trained and raced horses for 40 years". The accepted beliefs from the past are almost always wrong.
Here is an example " because of the direction in which we race and the pulling motion on their right side in the turns. That is why i have found across the board pacers almost always bow in the right front." The root is this fallacy is the belief that the outside limbs take a disproportionate load in the turns. It's likely that the belief stems from 4 wheel autos where we all know the outside tires take almost all the stress in the turns. Not so for horses.. in a turn the inside legs migrate towards the centre line and the outside legs aren't much more than outriggers for a brief duration. The most compelling studies on inner versus outer injuries come from Australia where the incidence of splint bone displacement was tracked and quantified.
Of course fatigue on the inside prompts extra load on the outside so the chicken and the egg conundrum will always be present.

[JIDGE]

Fuguzzi unfortunately has fallen into a common trap by asserting that trotting is a natural gait. The problem is that trotting is not a natural gait at harness racing speeds. In simplest terms a horse would escalate from a walk to a trot, then to a canter and finally to a gallop as the need for speed is increased.
Selective breeding has dramatically increased the speed range of the trotting gait but at the high end it's anything but natural.
As a side note, did you know that Paul Revere rode a pacer on his ride to immortality? Pacing is not as unnatural as you think.

I believe through decades and decades of selective breeding the trotting gate can be considered a natural gate at a high rate of speed in the standardbred. Over a hundred years ago the use of specific shoes, toe length, angles, and boots were much more necessary to sustain the gait. Are these implemented today? Of course, but the gate is much more refined, or you'd see a bunch of horses galloping at the end of every race. The same holds true for pacers. I think many pacers racing today could race free-legged, but why take the chance with so much money on the line.

[JIDGE]

The tell-tale sign of repeating untruths is when a person says "I trained and raced horses for 40 years". The accepted beliefs from the past are almost always wrong.
Here is an example " because of the direction in which we race and the pulling motion on their right side in the turns. That is why i have found across the board pacers almost always bow in the right front." The root is this fallacy is the belief that the outside limbs take a disproportionate load in the turns. It's likely that the belief stems from 4 wheel autos where we all know the outside tires take almost all the stress in the turns. Not so for horses.. in a turn the inside legs migrate towards the centre line and the outside legs aren't much more than outriggers for a brief duration. The most compelling studies on inner versus outer injuries come from Australia where the incidence of splint bone displacement was tracked and quantified.
Of course fatigue on the inside prompts extra load on the outside so the chicken and the egg conundrum will always be present.

I think I'm gonna go with the guy who trained horses for 40 years over the guy who read an Austalian study in a book.

[Fuguzzi]

I will always stand by my contention that pacers almost always bow in the right front and alot of that has to do with the fact that it is the pulling leg. Cmon, backstretchers, do any of you disagree. Typical racetrack coversation - "Don't claimer that one." Why? "Bowed tendon" Rght front? "Yup"

[Fuguzzi]

The tell-tale sign of repeating untruths is when a person says "I trained and raced horses for 40 years". The accepted beliefs from the past are almost always wrong.
Here is an example " because of the direction in which we race and the pulling motion on their right side in the turns. That is why i have found across the board pacers almost always bow in the right front." The root is this fallacy is the belief that the outside limbs take a disproportionate load in the turns. It's likely that the belief stems from 4 wheel autos where we all know the outside tires take almost all the stress in the turns. Not so for horses.. in a turn the inside legs migrate towards the centre line and the outside legs aren't much more than outriggers for a brief duration. The most compelling studies on inner versus outer injuries come from Australia where the incidence of splint bone displacement was tracked and quantified.
Of course fatigue on the inside prompts extra load on the outside so the chicken and the egg conundrum will always be present.

I don't untruths, don't need to 

[JIDGE]

I will always stand by my contention that pacers almost always bow in the right front and alot of that has to do with the fact that it is the pulling leg. Cmon, backstretchers, do any of you disagree. Typical racetrack coversation - "Don't claimer that one." Why? "Bowed tendon" Rght front? "Yup"

I'd say most lameness 70-30 right side especially on a half mile track. But I never got a quarter crack on the right -- the few I've had were always on the left side -- front or back. Many times if I had one lame front left it was usually a secondary lameness. I think joints take more of a beating on the right side -- especially on a half. I always felt bows and suspensories happen at the end of a mile when a horse gets overly tired.

[Fuguzzi]

agreed about fatigue and one thing I should have qualified was that 905 of my experience racing was on halfs with some 5/8ths  Turns are deinitely a factor especially with hocks.