542 THE EXTERIOR OF THE HORSE. 



In both members the fetlocks will be flexed with suppleness, but 

 without exaggeration ; the contact of the feet will take place uniformly 

 upon the plantar surface ; when once rested, the hoof will remain 

 immobile until it is raised, and will rotate neither outward nor inward. 

 The beats will be equidistant, light, and of equal intensity ; the poste- 

 rior imprints will be located in front of the anterior of the same side, 

 and hence, in this case, forging must be looked after ; they will be of 

 the same form as the feet, clean, entire, and marked from the toe to the 

 heel externally and internally ; their direction will be parallel to the 

 axis of the trail ; finally, the intervals between those of the left side 

 will be equal to the same intervals between those of the right side, 

 which will indicate that the movements of the members are of the 

 same extent. 



Backing. 



Backing, properly speaking, is only walking backward, and it is 

 erroneous on the part of most authors to classify it among the move- 

 ments upon place. It is best to study it after the trot and the walk ; 

 the reason of this will be obvious presently. 



Ketrogression is difficult and fatiguing for the horse, in consequence 

 of the inversion of the functions of the members which it implies ; but 

 some execute it better than others, and even with dangerous rapidity. 



Backing may be effected by the horse in three different conditions : 

 he may be free, mounted, or harnessed to a vehicle. 



1st. Free or abandoned to himself (Fig. 234), he performs it in 

 almost the same manner as when he is mounted, only his step is easier 

 and more secure. The order in which the members succeed each other 

 is similar to that which we have indicated in the walk, the great differ- 

 ence being that the initial movement is made by a hind-limb. If this 

 be the posterior right, it will be followed by the anterior left, then the 

 posterior left, and, finally, the anterior right. 



If the horse were to back at a trot, the members would be displaced 

 simultaneously, as in this gait, by diagonal bipeds in two successive 

 times. 



With .a particular dressing, backing may be effected with the same 

 regularity and the same speed as the trot forward. Count Lancosme 

 de Breve publicly demonstrated this, and one of us was a witness of 

 the performance in the riding-school in Paris of which he was director. 



It is not indispensable, under these conditions, that the head and 

 the neck be raised and drawn backward. These regions may remain 

 in their ordinary situation and the horse back of his own accord. 



