Tweaking the Foot

We've almost finished animating the legs now, but to emphasise on the weight of the horse especially when it lands and pushes down on the ground, select the ankle control and notice the "Compress Fetlock" option.   For each leg you'll need to scrub through the poses and judge which frames the foot is fully planted on the floor.

For example, for the right hind leg they're planted from Frame 8 to 10. At Frame 8 key the "Compress Fetlock" at 0 as the hoof has just begun to touch the floor and theres no pressure on it yet, then at Frame 10 bring it up to 10, which is the maximum compression as it's just before the hoof is about to leave the ground so all of the horse's weight is squashing it's muscles around the hoof. After keying we need to alter the curve. From Frame 8 to 10 the compression will be increasing steadily so a straight increasing line shown above is fine, but as soon as it hits the maximum and about to kick off, it'll drastically fall and go back to 0 so a steep and decelerating curve . Now you'll need to repeat this process for the other legs, but it'll be at different frames depending on when the foot is planted.