LEAPING, OR JUMPING. 97 



when a horse is said to 'buck' in his leaping, that is, to come 

 down upon or near to the spot from which he arose/' Now in 

 this sentence, short as it is, I maintain that several misstatements 

 are made ; as I shall proceed to show. To begin with the latter 

 part. If a horse is properly said to " buck" in his leaping, it is 

 evident that the two cannot be synonymous, or there would be no 

 occasion for the distinction, and therefore if "bucking" means 

 jumping up and coming down on the same ground, which is the 

 general acceptation of the term, leaping cannot mean the same, 

 which it is said sometimes to do by Mr. Percivall in the quotation 

 which I have adduced. When a horse simply "bucks" in his 

 play he does not leap forward, but springs into the air, and even 

 then he generally makes some progression. When he "bucks" 

 in his leaps, he must progress, because he begins on one side of 

 the obstacle to be overcome, -and finishes on the other. It is not 

 meant that he then acts exactly as he does in play, or when viciously 

 trying to dislodge his rider, but that his action resembles to a con- 

 siderable extent this true bucking, in which little .or no progres- 

 sion is made. I therefore hold that Percivall's exception is not 

 founded in truth ; and that the act of leaping necessarily implies 

 progression, for without it the perpendicular spring into the air is 

 properly distinguished by the term bucking, as admitted by Perci- 

 vall himself. Then, turning back to the first sentence, I think 

 every careful observer will admit that in the leap, whatever may 

 be its kind, the feet do not quit the ground simultaneously. Mani- 

 festly in the standing or slow leap the fore feet rise first, unless 

 the horse " bucks," when all rise almost but not quite at the same 

 moment. A careful examination of the mechanism of the horse 

 will show that this must be the case, because, as the fore legs are 

 straight to the last, there is no spring in them, and if they were 

 not first raised by the action of the loins and haunches, as in rear- 

 ing, they would remain on the ground until they were dragged by 

 the hind quarters turning a somerset over them. In the human 

 body, as the legs are ordinarily kept straight, they must be bent 

 before a spring can be taken, for even the angular ankle joint re- 

 quires a bent knee to enable it to act upon the toes. In the horse 

 the fore leg resembles that of man in this respect, but the hind 

 leg in the standing position is bent at the stifle and hock, and is 

 then exactly like a man's when he is prepared to take a standing 

 jump. As a consequence of this the fore quarter of the horse 

 when he is standing must be raised by the hind, since it has no 

 angles to give a spring with, and if so it must leave the ground 

 first, as I have already shown. The flying leap may readily be 

 seen to be accomplished by the fore feet leaving the ground first, 

 and no one I believe disputes this, so that it is unnecessary to dis- 

 cuss it. 



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