THE rriAMEWORK OF THE HORSE. 



90 





horse moves its diagonal legs simultaneously, ornearl}^ 

 so — that is to say, the off fore and the near hind leg\ 

 move together and alternate in this action with the I 

 near fore and off hind ones ; so that, whilst the one / 

 pair is being moved forwards the other sustains th^' 

 weight of the animal ; and supposing the horse to be 

 in equilibrio or balance, we might be led to suppose 

 that the perpendicular line passing through the centre 

 of gravity would fall exactly in the centre of a line 

 connecting the fore and hind foot that remains on 

 the ground. But this is not the case, except for the 

 moment at which the movement is half completed.* 

 Fig. 2, A, will make this more intelligible. The full 



Fig. 2. 



lines connect the pairs of feet as they alternately sup- 

 port the horse, whilst the dotted ones represent the 



* In the manege movement called piqf6, in which the horse 

 moves his limbs as in trotting, but without gaining ground, the 

 perpendicularin question does, in thealternate movement,always 

 bisect the line connecting the two feet which are on the ground. 



