CHAPTER III. 



ATTITUDE AND MOTION OF THE LEGS, 



Many years ago Dr. J. B. D. Stillman published a book on "The 

 Horse in Motion", under the patronage of the late Gov. Leland Stan- 

 ford, the maker and owner of the once famous Palo Alto Farm. Here 

 a very skilful photographer by the name of E. J. Muybridge took a 

 series of photographs of animals in motion and succeeded in proving 

 as unnatural all previously conceived ideas regarding the various atti- 

 tudes of animals in motion. The photographs were a wonderful reve- 

 lation, not only to the men engaged with horses, but also to the world 

 at large and particularly to students and masters of art. The services 

 that Muybridge rendered to the cause of the horse and of art can never 

 be overestimated, for they lie at the very foundation of a correct un- 

 derstanding of animal motion. It was in these experiments that the 

 strides of the moving horse was first measured and roughly stated for 

 each horse, and this fact, together with David Roberge's sound prin- 

 ciples of "pointing," first suggested the present analysis of the trot 

 and pace. It seemed as if the record left on the ground by the tracks 

 of each foot might be a sort of photograph of his mode of propulsion. 

 Puzzling as the idea appeared to the writer some ten years ago, it 

 gained in importance and interest as case after case was subjected to 

 such an investigation. Before considering this method we have stiH 

 to look into the motion of the legs, such as photography was able to 

 present. 



We have in the horse five moving points, namely, his four feet 

 and the center of gravity situated in his body in a plane passing length- 

 wise through the middle of the body, this plane being at right angles 

 with or perpendicular to the ground plane or surface. This center of 

 gravity acts as a pivot of locomotion around which weight is equally 



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