THE FRAME WOKE OF THE HOESE. 



29 



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

 pair is being moved forwards the other sustains the 

 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 t 



Fig. 2. 



will make this more intelligible. The full lines connect 

 the pairs of feet as they alternately support the horse, 

 whilst the dotted ones represent the connection of those 

 in motion. When it comes to the turn of the near hind 

 foot at &, and the off fore one at b, to move up to their 

 next position at c d, the line a b becomes a dotted one, 



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

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

 perpendicular in question does, in the alternate movement, always 

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



