THE SCIENTIFIC EQUITATION 



movement, yet without occasioning too much sur- 

 prise. But the effects of right leg and right hand 

 will have a tendency to send the haunches to the 

 left rather than forward. Therefore the rider 's left 

 leg has also to be closed, partly to prevent] the 

 haunches from getting away to the left, and partly 

 because the attack of the right leg first attracts the 

 right hind leg below the center of gravity, and then 

 calls the left hind leg to its support, the front legs 

 being raised by the effects of the right hand, the 

 right ready to extend to receive the weight as the 

 foot comes back on the ground. 



All these effects have to be executed with deci- 

 sion and precision, in a word, with equestrian tact. 

 It is this employment of this left leg of the rider to 

 maintain the horse straight at the beginning of the 

 gallop to the right, which has created the mistaken 

 theory that it is the function of the left leg to start 

 the gallop to the right, and of the right leg to start 

 the gallop to the left. Such was the foundation of 

 the theory of the gallop executed by the diagonal 

 biped. 



The motion in diagonal at the gallop shows itself 

 only when the horse changes lead from one lateral 

 biped to the other. With the gallop on the right 

 hind leg, this leg, which is giving the impulse, is 

 always in front of the left, which is the more con- 

 tinued support. But for the forcible change of lead 

 from right to left, the impulsion alters first, and 

 after this the support passes to the other leg. The 



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