THE GAITS IN PARTICULAR. 527 



full-grown animals whose strength has become exhausted from exces- 

 sive exertion, or which have been overdriven. 



Whatever may be the process of disassociation employed by the 

 animal, and the accuracy of the interpretation which can be given to 

 it, the fact remains that the disturbance of the isochronism of the diag- 

 onal beats results in the formation of unipedal bases, which increase 

 the exertion of the extremities. Whether tire broken trot is the flying 

 trot of subjects endowed with great action, or racking of those fatigued 

 and inapt, its consequences upon the locomotory apparatus remain the 

 same : premature or positive ruin, according to circumstances. 



On the other hand, trotting-horses which disassociate their diagonal 

 beats by the initial rest of the posterior foot are less pleasant as saddle- 

 horses than others, the rapidity of the pace being taken out of con- 

 sideration. If they do not give very hard reactions to the rider, they 

 communicate to him light and sudden shocks which displace his seat 

 transversely, a kind of movement expressed by sa}'ing that they roll 

 upon their haunches. With them one cannot ride d VAnglaise, an incon- 

 venience of a certain importance to ])ersons who are in the habit of 

 doing so and who wish to save themselves from the unnecessary fatigue 

 of a long journey. 



Saut de Pie (Skipping). 



When the disunion of the trot becomes excessive, and when this 

 gait is on the point of passing into the gallop, the horse, in order to 

 preserve it, effects a sort of leap behind, to which is given the name of 

 saut de pie ^ (foot-jerk). 



This movement, of very short duration, and analogous to that of 

 a pedestrian who endeavors to acquire the step of a companion whose 

 speed is greater, has not yet been analyzed by chrono-photography 

 or by the graphic method. (See Canter.) It is therefore impossible, 

 in the actual state, to recognize the mechanism. Hence we will not 

 dwell on this. 



The Canter. 



The canter is a gait of transition which the trotter assumes tem- 

 porarily, and in which he gallops on one of his bipeds (anterior or 

 posterior), while he continues to trot on the other. 



It could be defined as a semi-broken trot, — that is to say, with diag- 

 onal beats synchronous in one moiety of the stride, disassociated in 

 the other. 



From a peculiar resemblance which is easily understood, although 



1 De Curnieu, loc. cit., ler partie, p. 145. 



