124 THE HORSE. 
I HAVE THUS ENDEAVOURED TO sHow (and it may, I think, be considered 
as the most simple mode of describing the pace) that, as a rule, when the 
horse is starting from a state of rest into a walk he commences with one 
of the hind feet, the particular one chosen being that which at the time 
bears the least weight of the body upon it. Next follows the fore foot of 
the same side, then the opposite hind foot, and lastly the fore foot also of 
the opposite side. When once it is shown that the hind foct almost 
touches the heel of the foot which precedes it, before the latter is raised, 
of which a moment’s observation will satisfy any careful observer, the 
order of sequence becomes clear enough, and, as I set out with observing, 
a subject which is generally made extremely complicated becomes as simple 
as possible. In nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand the 
horse starts on the walk with a hind foot, and the only exception is when 
he is, from circumstances, at the time in an unnatural attitude. 
THE SECOND QUESTION in dispute to which I have alluded is that involv- 
ing the part of the foot which first touches the ground in this pace. In 
this country veterinary writers have generally considered that in the 
sound foot the toe first reaches the ground, and undoubtedly Mr. Percivall 
is no exception, for he says at page 143 of his Lectures, “To the eye of 
the observer there is the slightest perceptible difference between the toe 
and heels coming to the ground in favour of the former, a difference that 
need not disturb the horseman’s good old rule, that a horse in his walk 
should place his foot fairly and flatly down.” This. theory has, as far as I 
know, never been admitted by practised horsemen, and in the year 1855, 
in describing the perfect hack, at page 526 of “ British Rural Sports,” I 
wrote as follows: “The walk should be safe and pleasant, the fore foot 
well lifted and deposited on its heel.” The first veterinary surgeon, 
however, who combated the opinions of his brethren, was Mr. Lupton (a 
disciple of Mr. Gamgee), who, early in the year 1858, inserted in the Hdin- 
burgh Veterinary Review the following “ Physiological Reflections on the 
Position assumed by the Fore Foot of the Horse in the varied Movements 
of the Limb” :— 
“ 1. The foot of a living horse in a state of rest remains firmly on the 
ground, that is, the toe and the heel are on the ground at one and the 
same time; but if during this position the extensor muscles were to 
contract, then the toe would be raised from the ground ; and if, on the 
other hand, the flexor muscles were to contract, then the heel would be 
raised from the ground. Now, during progression, the first movement 
which takes place is the contraction of the flexor muscles, by which 
(together with the muscles of the arm) the foot is raised, the toe being the 
last part of that organ raised from the ground. The foot is now in a 
position to be sent forward, which is brought about by the contraction of 
the extensor muscles; the foot is then thrown out as far as the flexcr 
muscles will admit, and when at the greatest allowable point of tension, 
the heel is brought in apposition with the ground. ‘The flexors now in 
their turn contract, the heel is first raised from the ground, and lastly the 
toe, which brings me back to the point I started from. 
“2. Viewing the leg of a horse as a piece of mechanism (allowing the 
leg to be even in a state of anchylosis), and comparing it to the spoke of a 
wheel, during the revolutions of which the posterior part of the inferior 
extremity, or, in other words, that part which is attached to the tier, 
comes in contact with the ground first; if in the place of the spoke 
the above-mentioned leg of the horse were there placed, the heel in that 
case would come in contact with the ground first, and the toe last. 
