Tracking up in walk and trot (and conformation)

[Scarlett 001]

I did a search on NR, but could not find much mention of "tracking up". Here are my questions:

(i) Can someone explain what kind of tracking up (perfect tracking up, overtracking, undertracking etc.) one should expect at the walk, and for a working trot and a collected trot etc.? I have a rough idea, but more info is always good.

(ii) If a horse has a particularly long back, will that make it harder for the horse to track up as well (he/she has to move his/her legs further to reach the front hoof print presumably), or should one still expect the same amount of tracking up??? (yes, my horse has a long back, so this is why I am asking)

(iii) Suppose the horse is moving his legs very well, but because of his long back he does not track up - would a dressage judge say this is okay as his legs are moving and this is the important thing (even if conformation does not allow tracking up) or would this just be seen as a "flaw"? (this question obviously assumes that the answer to (ii) is that the long back does affect tracking up...)

[Skyhuntress]

(i) Can someone explain what kind of tracking up (perfect tracking up, overtracking, undertracking etc.) one should expect at the walk, and for a working trot and a collected trot etc.? I have a rough idea, but more info is always good.
In a good forward walk, conformation permitting, the horses back legs should minimally fall where the front legs were. Ideally, a horse with a nice walk should have an extension of the back legs over the front ones by about 2-3 inches. In the trot, the tracking distance is measured between the front hoofprint and and the hind hoofprint on the same side. Ideally, in medium trot, I'd expect to see about 2-3in different from that of working (which I would say is about 1-2 inches overtracking on normal horses), and about 4-5in in extension to reflect on the lengthening of the frame. Ironically, in collected trot (watch some Olympic horses at some point), many horses show an UNDERTRACKING - meaning they actually don't track up at all, they are usually short a hoofpring distance.

Did that make sense? Or did I confuse you as much as I confused myself?


(ii) If a horse has a particularly long back, will that make it harder for the horse to track up as well (he/she has to move his/her legs further to reach the front hoof print presumably), or should one still expect the same amount of tracking up??? (yes, my horse has a long back, so this is why I am asking)
Yes. It's harder for them to coordinate everything, and for a horse to actively track up, he needs to be loose in the hind end. Many horses with long backs have problems lifting the back and coordinating their body (you should see Limerick...longest back I've ever sat on) You should still expect the same amount of tracking up (or at least see SOME tracking up), you just have to work a lot harder on getting their hind end to engage. I actually like the LOOK of longer backs because they usually almost always have bigger strides

In general though, the ideal dressage horse is shortbacked, long legged and long necked - that is what facilitates overtracking in a horse.

(iii) Suppose the horse is moving his legs very well, but because of his long back he does not track up - would a dressage judge say this is okay as his legs are moving and this is the important thing (even if conformation does not allow tracking up) or would this just be seen as a "flaw"? (this question obviously assumes that the answer to (ii) is that the long back does affect tracking up...)
It shouldn't (unless he is sore in his back or has any other conformation flaw) He SHOULD be able to track up, in walk, at the very least. And yes, you would be marked down in higher levels. Not in training or 1st I believe, but in 2nd, you'd start to probably have some comments because it shows that the horse isn't really through or fluid enough in the back to do higher level work.

Hoep that answers some questions!

[Scarlett 001]

I think what you wrote made sense - only you flipped between inches and centimeters which is a tad confusing (I can do the conversion, but was not sure if you had meant to change units when giving those numbers!). ;) :)

Thanks for response.

p.s. (ETA) Wait a minute - you changed those units to be the same at the very same time I was writing my response! :p

[Skyhuntress]

I think what you wrote made sense - only you flipped between inches and centimeters which is a tad confusing (I can do the conversion, but was not sure if you had meant to change units when giving those numbers!). ;) :)

Thanks for response.

p.s. (ETA) Wait a minute - you changed those units to be the same at the very same time I was writing my response! :p


Haha ,ya ;) I realized that after I posted. I did mean inches :)

[galadriel]

Long backs can be interesting, though. It takes more muscling to get them built, but they may be a smoother ride and they can be quite capable of pretty/effective performance. Duch has a long back, along with a low-set neck and heavy shoulder, which makes her very front-heavy. However, when she's fit, she works SO nicely.

She's recently had some interesting things going on in her hind end. She was *very* heavy in late pregnancy, which made it hard for her to lift her hind feet at all. She dragged her hind hooves on the ground enough to square off the toe. The foaling was difficult, and the foal was too big, which affected her pelvic area a lot, and she's still not really past that (my vet said to give her about 6 months). And even so, despite using herself poorly for about a month and then having strange stuff going on with her bones & ligaments, she tracks up very nicely and even overtracks noticeably when she's moving with energy.

~ ~ ~

At the moment, Firefly is coping with legs that are WAY too long for her short body. She hasn't worked out how to overtrack yet...to canter, she almost moves vertically trying not to step on herself. It is too, too cute.

~ ~ ~

Kat has long legs & a short back, which makes it very very easy for her to track up and to overtrack. As a result, it can be very clear when she's got something minor going on in her hind end; sometimes one hind leg doesn't extend as much as the other, or both legs fail to track up for one reason or another. It's much easier to see in her than it is in Duchess. Typically, though, when something's going on with Duch it shows up as an irregularity *some*where, then I just have to take a better look. With Kat, it usually is obvious at a quick glance what quarter(s) is/are affected.

As an example of "something going on," Kat's right hind has always been more tight than her left. When I am not able to manually stretch her for a while (you know, the stupid back problems) she gets more short-strided in her right hind than in her left. This is something I can expect to see, but it's made easier by the fact that her strides are so clear.

On occasion I've seen something similar in Duchess, but in those cases, I attribute it to some kind of minor injury (a slip, a kick, etc) because she's not prone to having one side tighten up more. It's not as overtly obvious, but the lack of tracking up on one side does show if you're used to looking for it.

It's been a long, VERY hot FL day, and I think I'm blithering a bit ;) Sorry!

[kelsey]

In reality, it will all depend on the judge. A very good judge will take your horse's conformation into account when marking. For example, a longer backed shorter legged horse who is working correctly may very well track up less than a short backed longer legged horse not working correctly (by working correctly I mean starting to shift weight from front to back and allowing energy to flow through the back). I owned a long legged short backed horse who wowed the less informed (admittedly, I was one when I purchased her) but who did not have very good conformation in the hind end and was never able to really shift her weight off her forehand, even though she gave the illusion that she was.

My coach believes that too many people worry about this overtracking when looking at prospects, in fact she called my mare a "leg mover" (which was definitely NOT a compliment!) You need to look at the horse's back end (engine) and the rest will come. For medium work, the ability to collect is the most important thing. My long-backed/short-legged gelding is ready to show second level/schooling third and is just coming into his own. At training/first he gets lost among the fancier horses, but he is so athletic and balanced that a second level test is easy for him.