[**waiting on a long render – forgive the stream of consciousness & speculative post… ]

If you don't show the feet/hooves, you can just translate the Body.

The problem with a continuous Body translation, as you’ve no doubt discovered, is that the hooves on the ground will be continuously moving, and thus will likely appear to slide.    

hmmm ... or perhaps you COULD nail the translation speed just right, if the BVH is really accurate and if it was a full-out gallop.  However, with loping, trotting or walking, with their less linear, more sinusoidal or lurching speed variations, a continuous Body translation will no doubt still appear unnatural.