CHAPTER IX 



DOWNHILL AND UPHILL TRIALS COMPARED. 



Slight grades prevail on almost every track and many experiments 

 enumerated in this book, and many more not given but corroborative 

 of the facts explained, have all been taken with such conditions 

 known. About twenty-seven of these were trials in both directions 

 consecutively over the same ground. Various horses were used as 

 subjects and the comparisons between uphill and downhill will perhaps 

 serve as indications of the effect of such grades under the same ad- 

 justment of shoes. Some horses preferred to go uphill, that is, their 

 movements were better and such improvement of gait gave rise to 

 a change of the shoeing. 



In many experiments preference was given to trials on a downhill 

 grade because it appeared to be a more severe test for the balance of 

 the animal to have the increasing momentum of the body added to 

 the ordinary efforts of locomotion. More weight is thrown on the 

 fore part of the body in the downhill movement, while uphill the 

 weight shifts more towards the hind part of the body. 



Reference is here made to Fig. 29, where Abe Edgington is 

 shown under the saddle and where the weight of the rider incites 

 the horse to greater hind action and backward extension. The down- 

 grade movement requires a better control of the motion and a defect 

 in the gait is more readily detected, while the upgrade movement is 

 characterized by an effort to lift the body higher off the ground at 

 every stride and therefore it develops more action. Downhill the 

 horse is hurled forward and downward at every step and his action, 

 while freer, will be lower ; but to be exact it should be stated that 

 in going downhill the front action will be somewhat more developed 



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