THE PACES OF THE HORSE. 



l 37 



in a forward propulsion, with a scarcely perceptible impulsion of the 

 body in an upward direction. This agrees with the theory quite gen- 

 erally admitted, that the fore-legs have little to do in the normal pace, 

 except to support alternately the fore-part of the body, while to the 

 hind-limbs belong the propulsive action and the tractive force exerted 

 by the animal. Fig. 12 is a representation of the horse at a walking- 

 pace. The instant is marked in the notation by a dot. 



Fig. 10. Representation of the Horse at a Walking -Pace. 



The gallop comprises all those paces in which irregular impacts of 

 the feet upon the ground recur at regular intervals. Most writers dis- 

 tinguish three kinds of gallop by the rhythm of the impacts, and name 

 them, according to this rhythm, gallop in two, three, and four time. 

 The most common kind is the gallop in three-time, from which the 

 tracings in Fig. 11 have been obtained. At the commencement of the 

 figure the animal is suspended above the ground ; then comes the im- 

 pact P G, which announces that the left hind-foot touches the ground. 

 This is the foot diagonally opposed to that which the horse places for- 

 ward in the gallop, and whose impact A D will be the last produced. 

 Between these two impacts and in the middle of the interval which 

 separates them, comes the simultaneous impact of the two feet form- 

 ing the left diagonal biped. The superposition of the notations A G, 

 P D, clearly shows this synchronism. In this series of movements 

 the ear has therefore distinguished three sounds at nearly equal inter- 

 vals. The first sound is produced by a hinder-foot, the second by a 

 diagonal biped, the third by a fore-foot. Between the single impact 



