THE GAITS IN PARTICULAR. 529 



take the gallop by urging them on. Likewise, horses very ardent and 

 of a good conformation are often seen to canter for some distance be- 

 fore passing into the gallop, despite the efforts of their riders to prevent 

 them (Lenoble du Teil). 



Nevertheless, the horse which canters ordinarily suffers in some 

 region of the members of the cantering biped, most often the feet. 

 Under other circumstances, it is an index of weakness, of indolence, or 

 of exhaustion. Certainly we must suspect such conditions, as this gait 

 alone may be able to betray ; in itself, it is not defective, for, bordering 

 on the gallop, it causes, like the latter, less fatigue and furnishes a little 

 more speed than the trot. 



Running Walk. 



This gait, in our study, should be placed between the many va- 

 rieties of the trot and those of the walk, because it establishes very well 

 the transition or the passage from the one to the other. 



It resembles the trot (Fig. 220) in that the members are successively 

 moved in diagonal bipeds {AG, PD — AD, PG) and unites its beats in 

 this order ; it simulates the walk, on the contrary, by its slowness, its 



Fig. 220. — Running walk : notation and nature of the bases. 



marched character, the mode of succession, and the number of the 

 beats. It is, consequently, a short broken trot in the last degree, as 

 well as a very accelerated walk in which the horse is at the point of 

 passing into the trot. 



The disassociation of the diagonal beats, like the marched character 

 of this gait, gives rise to complex supplementary bases (1,2, 3 — 5, 6, 

 7), which are interposed between the ordinary diagonal bases (4, 8 . . .), 

 always of long duration. Among these supplementary bases is found 

 one that is unilateral (2, 6, 10), placed between two very short tripedal 

 bases (1 and 3, 5 and 7, 9 and 11). 



It follows from this that the running walk is low, by no means 

 leaped, and always very easy for the rider. Horses which move thus 

 are supposed to elevate the members but little and scrape the floor. 

 Nevertheless, this assertion has yet to be verified. These horses, called 



34 



