In bipedal animals such as humans, the gallop is an asymmetrical gait in which each leg does something different. The lead leg does a walking step while the trailing leg runs or leaps. This results in an interlimb phasing relationship that is either 2:1 or 3:1. A slide is the same pattern of interlimb coordination, but is done in a sideward direction. But do humans really gallop? Technically speaking the answer is ‘yes’, but the movements are much less efficient than for a horse and even a chimpanzee. When humans attempt to gallop using all four limbs, they tend to fall over or gallop at a very slow pace. In truth, their attempts would better qualify as a quadrapedal gait for consideration by the Monty Python Ministry of Silly Walks. In fact, human running is more mechanically similar to trotting. Moreover, according to the biomechanist Alberto Minetti, the motion of a galloping horse’s front and back legs has striking similarities to human skipping (in both gaits, all limbs leave the ground at the same time, with trailing and leading legs landing in quick succession, forcing the body into the air again. The respective effects of galloping and skipping are quite different: galloping is fast and energy efficient for horses while skipping results in slow, jarring, and energy dissipating steps as the knees do not generate any force. In a low-gravity environment such as the moon, however, skipping has proved to be preferred gait among Apollo astronauts, because it generates a cooperative association between exertion and balance.
See Coordination, Fundamental movement patterns, Gross motor abilities, Hopping, Locomotion, Movement coordination, Skipping, Walking