In which I ramble. A lot.

[conuly]

Ana had been cranky cranky cranky, crying and fussing, and I couldn't figure out why. And then I realized "holy crap, you should've had a nap an hour ago! More!" so I chuck her in the crib and she immediately shuts up (and eventually falls asleep).

I didn't know for sure that she was asleep, but I really had to pee. And to do that, I had to walk past her room with no door. But if she saw me, she was sure to freak and start crying. What to do, what to do.... I know! I can crawl past the door, right?

As I'm crawling, it occurs to me that I move the right arm with the left leg, and vice versa. But why? I know that not all mammals do that - some of them move right-right, left-left. In fact, we had a somewhat brain damaged kitty once who spent several days falling over every time she tried to walk. I eventually figured out that she was trying to move both legs on one side first, then the legs on the other (she did recover from this part, thankfully).

So I try that. Huh. Interesting. Not especially easy, though.

And Ana was asleep, so I just got up and walked to the bathroom. No use being silly, right?

Comments

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

That is trot, the basic movement pattern for most terrestrial animals that move two legs at a time, you can see it to in how people swing their arms when the walk or run. It is an ancestral thing from the very first tetrapods that had to bend their spines to walk, and that way of locomotion is still seen in lizards to-day. For several reasons animals have evolved other ways of locomotion, such as the slithering of snakes, flight of birds, hopping of some rodents and the lagomorphs, the gallop of many mammals, and then the "peculiar gaits of the icelandic horse" which were actually universal to tame horses once upon a time, and still remain to an extent in some breeds.

Walk (http://www.eidfaxi.is/fraedsla/dat/fet.html)
Trot (http://www.eidfaxi.is/fraedsla/dat/brokk.html)
Gallop (http://www.eidfaxi.is/fraedsla/dat/stokk.html)
Tölt (http://www.eidfaxi.is/fraedsla/dat/tolt.html), a grotesque version of this gait is displayed by the Tennessee walker. This is also the way elephants run, for they are too heavy for a gait with suspension.
Skeið (http://www.eidfaxi.is/fraedsla/dat/skeid.html), Pace, some horse breeds can be forced to take to this gait by special loops around the legs, but it is naturally displayed in the Icelandic Horse.

It should be noted that these do not display the sheer beauty of a horse in motion, and look really rather frigid.

[conuly]

I am continually impressed at people's brilliance.

Fear my eccentricity!

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

I thank you for the compliment, but this is not brilliance on my behalf, it is something that comes with the combination of being fond of horses in Iceland and being an aspiring biologist.

But you know, when I was a child, I trained myself to be able to run in each of these gaits on all fours, and I still can. Spider walk is also a speciality of mine. When things had something to do with travelling on all fours in PE, were the only times I was chosen first.