34 



THE HORSE. 



of artists, who never portray the leap of a horse over an 

 obstacle without its giving a kick, which is in reality, an 

 exceptional occurrence. 



The defective gaits are the amble and its derivatives, 

 the high walk, ambling or rocking pace, the aubin, or 

 broken amble, in which the horse, usually ruined, gallops 

 with his fore and trots with his hind members. Here 

 I will only speak of the first. 



In the amble, the centre of gravity is not upon the 

 line which unites the two extremities of the lateral appui, 

 which tends to cause the fall of the body on the side 

 of the raised members. For this reason, these last are 

 never far from the ground, in order that they may revert 

 the more rapidly to the appui, their duty being to foresee 

 and support this fall. 



Certain American trotters, after a special training, thus 

 afford a trot of immense speed with lateral appuis. 



I have often heard the amble confounded with the phase 

 of the diagonal appui of the walk, which we give (see fig. 

 2). This error arises from the slight parallelism which 

 affects the lateral members a and b. 



In the amble, not only is there the parallelism during 

 the two complete periods of the walk, but, as a conse- 

 quence, the bipedals lift 

 themselves together and 

 together arrive at the 

 appui, after equal oscilla- 

 tions. 



Backijig is effected 

 diagonally (fig. 18). In 

 the ordinary retrogression, 

 the horse has at first a 

 single foot at the support 

 and three for the appui. 

 When the animal accele- 

 Fig. 18. rates this movement, the 



diagonally opposed feet 

 lift themselves together and the recoil takes place with 

 two times, but rarely in a straight line. Great strength is 

 necessitated in the loins and hocks for due satisfaction 

 of the reiterated efforts of the horse in the curvature of 

 the back and the assumption of the point of appui on 



