24 Gait of the American Trotter and Pacer 



present to the reader a few outlines of such series of pictures in order 

 to enable him to judge for himself of the motion of the trotter; but 

 the main purpose of doing so is to show the curves of elevation or 

 action of fore and hind legs. These deductions are my own plotting 

 of the various points in motion. By connecting these points with the 

 intermediate line or curve of motion we arrive at a presentation of the 

 line of motion, called the trajectory. 



It is appropriate to quote Dr. Stillman in his "The Horse in 

 iMotion," on the elevation of the horse while in motion. 



"In the slow trot the action of the muscles is not sustained and 

 the bony levers are allowed to resume their normal angles. At each 

 half stride the center of gravity regains nearly, if not quite, its eleva- 

 tion; but as the horse increases his speed he lowers the center of 

 gravity; and in so doing enables the extremities to reach farther and 

 sustain the weight longer, while the rapidity of the movement of the 

 body gives it a momentum that forces the suspensory ligaments to 

 yield and the angles to close to the requisite degree to prevent to alter- 

 native of the defection of the trajectory or the crushing of the limb ; 

 and if measurement be taken of the height of the horse at different 

 .portions of the stride it will be found that it is least when it would 

 'seem that it should be greatest ; that is, when it passes the perpendicu- 

 lar, or that point where the supporting limbs are shortest." 



In Fig. 19 we get the general idea of the elevation and exten- 

 sion of the trajectory or curve of motion which the foot of the horse 

 takes from one contact of ground to the next. We assume here that 

 the greater the elevation the greater the extension. 



This illustration serves to show the accepted belief about exten- 

 sion of feet or legs ; that is, the higher the elevation the greater the ex- 

 tension. In a measure this is true, if other conditions, such as muscu- 

 lar development, "pointing" and manner of shoeing, do not counteract 

 it. 



But from proofs by instantaneous photography and from actual 

 experience, as will be shown in later chapters, it is generally true 

 that the higher the elevation of action the less will be the extension. 

 Figs. 20 and 21 will serve to illustrate the point on this subject. With 



