Here is my first version of a horse walk. I tried to break it down and animating the skeleton first as I knew the anatomy was going to be challenging and it helped immensely.
The hard part was figuring out the skeleton in relation to the actual reference. I think the shoulders don’t work as well as I would like them to, and I also need to adjust the size of the neck, as right now it looks more of a draft horse, but the rest of the anatomy doesn’t match.
I’m happy with the way the hooves land on the ground but I’m not too sure about when they rise from the ground, as it seems like they are awkwardly slide, but I’m not sure whether and extra frame will solve the issue.
In terms of research, I mainly followed Richard Williams’s guide on animating horses plus another short guide which mainly focused on key frames, and which has helped me understanding anatomy a little bit more. This was also a great help when it came to understanding the shape of the front legs when they stretch out prior to the contact position.