192 MOVEMENT 



tracks have been carefully studied in equitation. 

 Horses have been shod with different-shaped shoes, so 

 that each hoof might leave on the ground a mark 

 that could be recognized. Fig. 128, compiled from 

 diagrams borrowed from different sources, shows the 

 corresponding tracks of the different paces of a 

 horse.* 



In the track left by the feet at a walking pace, the 

 hind feet are placed in the impressions left by the 

 front, the right hoof-marks exactly alternate with those 

 of the left feet. The distance between two impressions 

 on the same side is practically equal to the height of 

 the horse at the withers.! 



The hoof-marks are not exactly superimposed in 

 walking except when the ground is level, and the 

 animal moves at a certain rate. Going uphill, the 

 marks of the hind feet are generally behind those of 

 the fore feet. They may reach beyond them in walk- 

 ing downhill, with a result rather like that of ambling. 

 In the hoof-marks left by a horse at an amble, the 

 impressions of the hoofs on the same side are not super- 

 imposed. The marks of the hind feet are far in 

 advance of those of the fore feet. 



The hoof-marks left in trotting resemble those of 

 walking, except that there is a longer interval between 

 the steps. However, in slow trotting, the hoof-marks 



* In this table the prints of the right and left feet can be recognized 

 from their position on the riicht or left of the dotted and parallel lines. 

 The impression left by a fore foot is that of an ordinary horse's hoof, 

 that by a hind foot has two little cross-bars at the heel. The double 

 impression, that is to say, when the hind foot occupies the place 

 vacated by the fore foot, shares both thc.se characteristics, but has only 

 one cross-bar. 



t Raabe held that there was a constant and absolute equality 

 between the height of ;i horse and the distance between two consecu- 

 tive hoof-marks. Most specialists question so exact a relationship. 

 In any case it could only obtain in certain steady paces; horses, like 

 human beings, lengthen their stride as the pace is accelerated (see 

 chap viii., p. 132). 



