56 THE PROBLEM OF THE GALLOPING HORSE 



horse are off the ground, but they are not then extended, 

 but, on the contrary, are drawn, the hind ones forward and 

 the front ones backward, under the horse's belly (see PL I, 

 figs. 2 and 3). A model showing this actual instantaneous 

 attitude of the galloping horse has recently been placed in 

 the Natural History Museum. When the hoofs touch the 

 ground again after this instantaneous lifting and bending 

 of the legs under the horse, the first to touch it is that of 

 one of the hind legs (PL I, fig. 4), which is pushed very 

 far forward, forming an acute angle with the body. The 

 shock of the horse's impact on the ground is thus received 

 by the hind leg, which reaches obliquely forward beneath 

 the body like an elastic <-spring. Since the intantaneous 

 photographs have become generally known artists have 

 ceased to represent the galloping horse in the curious 

 stretched pose which used to be familiar to everyone in 

 Herring's racing plates (see PL II, fig. i), with both fore 

 and hind legs nearly horizontal, and the flat surface of the 

 hind hoofs actually turned upwards ! Indeed, as early as 

 1886 a French painter, M. Aime Morot, availed himself 

 of the information afforded by the then quite novel instan- 

 taneous photographs of the galloping horse, and exhibited 

 a picture of the cavalry fight at Rezonville between the 

 French and Germans, in which the old flying gallop does 

 not appear, but the attitudes of the horses are those 



PLATE II. Various representations of the gallop. Fig. i. From Geri- 

 cault's picture, "The Epsom Derby, 1821.'' Figs. 2 and 3. From 

 gold-work on the handle of a Mycenaean dagger, 1800 B.C. Fig. 4. 

 From iron-work found at Koban, east of the Black Sea, dating from 

 500 B.C. Fig. 5. From Muybridge's instantaneous photograph of a 

 fox-terrier, showing the probable origin of the pose of the "flying 

 gallop " transferred from the dog to other animals by the Mycenseans. 

 Fig. 6. The stretched-leg prance from the Bayeux tapestry (eleventh 

 century). Fig. 7. The stretched-leg prance used to represent the 

 gallop by Carle Vernet in 1760. Fig. 8. The stretched-leg prance 

 used by early Egyptian artists. 



