196 Gait of the American Trotter and Pacer 



This is an incline not too steep to cause any material commotion 

 in the animars movements, and represents about the usual downhill 

 path of the homestretch on many tracks. Since a horse is supposed 

 to make his greatest efforts at that part of the mile, he should show 

 then the best possible gait and balance, and as it is a severe test for 

 the balance of the horse to be compelled to control the additional mo- 

 mentum of a downhill path, it always seemed to me as being an ap- 

 propriate place to find out the very faults of gait which cause distress. 

 Still more appropriate were the double trials; that is, one shoeing 

 tested in both downhill and uphill directions, which will be discussed 

 in Chapter IX. ; but many other trials were made on level tracks. 



Wishing to give this matter another test before reversing the 

 weights of the shoes, another trial was made with the same shoes reset 

 and angles of hind feet lowered i. With about the same stride down- 

 hill (15.08 ft.) and a similar one uphill (14.23 ft.), there is still a 

 larger difference in the averages of extensions behind in the downhill 

 trial, namely: 



Hind 



Off. Near. Off. 



o +4 2 o 



Now, having the subject trot uphill, we have: 



Fore Hind 



Near. Off. Near. Off. 



+.03 o +. 10 o 



which all means that in the downhill trial the near fore preceded the 

 off fore 1. 08 in., and the near hind preceded the off hind 5.04 in. ; and 

 that in the uphill trial these differences dwindle down to negligible 

 distances. Again comparing the other distances we have : 



Stride. Dist. correl. feet. Oversteps. 



Downhill 15.08 3.30 4.24 



Uphill 14.23 3.34 3.77 



which are all in about the same proportion as those of previous trials, 

 with perhaps .a shade less separation of extremities than formerly. 



