Walk and Piaffe: Some surprises...
to which gait is piaffe most closely related by its mechanics?

Piaffe: left hind (braking) and right fore (mid stance) diagonal are in phase positions found in walk and not in a dressage trot, where their phasing would be parallel as they cycle through braking at toe-down, mid-stance and propulsion into toe-off. A gait needs to be more than alternating diagonal pairs to be called a trot.	Piaffe: right hind and left fore alternate with the other diagonal (Max does not have a piaffe with suspension). Piaffe with suspension is rare? and I have no samples of it at this point. My video of Andiamo with Sven Rothenberger shows a piaffe with deep flexion of the stance limbs but no actual suspension.
Piaffe to Walk transition phase 1: LH-RF	Piaffe to Walk transition phase 2: forequarters passive tripod of support LH-RF-LF, initiating head bob for walk with swing phase of hind leg.
Three positions of limbs in a gait cycle.	Medium Walk: left hind (braking) and right fore (beginning propulsion) diagonal are in walk phase positions and not trot, where their phasing would be parallel.
Legs in walk behave as though their model is an inverted pendulum where the center of mass (white circle) vaults over its attachment base.	Legs in trot or canter behave as though their model is a spring-loaded pendulum. Gravitational potential energy is stored as it compresses and released as kinetic energy during the propulsion phase.