622 A MANUAL OF VETERINARY PHYSIOLOGY 



never departed from. In Fig. 201 may be seen some of the 

 features of the horse's walk. It will be observed that the three 

 limbs followed by two is the characteristic, the three limbs being 

 any three, the two being any two, provided one is a fore and 

 one a hind. The track left by a horse at the walk is shown 

 in Fig. 212. If a track be studied, it will be observed that 

 the impression of the hind-foot is generally in advance of that 

 of its fore-foot, the limbs being in the position of the near legs 

 in Fig. 200, (4). But there is considerable variation ; the hind- 

 foot in a good walker will always be placed down in advance 

 of the impression left by the fore-foot. In an average walker 

 the hind-foot impression covers the fore more or less ; in a horse 

 that is a bad walker, or is tired, or taking short steps for any 

 reason, as in heavy draught, the hind-foot impression is behind 



Fig. 201. — Notation of the Walk. 

 1, 2, 3, and 4 correspond to similar numbers in Fig. 200. 



the fore. In draught it comes behind the fore if the traction be 

 heavy ; in descending a hill, it comes behind the fore if the load 

 is under control, but it falls in front of it if the weight cannot 

 be properly held back. The fore-leg remains on the ground for 

 a longer time than it takes in passing through the air, and com- 

 prises the period during which the body is passing over the 

 limbs. The movement in the air of both fore and hind legs is so 

 extremely rapid as almost to defy detection. The snatching up 

 of the foot from the ground is the quickest movement.* Muy- 

 bridge, following Gamgee (senior), refers it to the spring or 

 rebound of the suspensory ligament, but it would seem to be 

 due entirely to the flexor muscles. In walking on level ground 

 the majority of horses rarely extend the knee any great distance 

 beyond a vertical line dropped from the point of the shoulder. 



* The writer caused horses to trace this movement by fixing a pencil to 

 the foot and walking them past a piece of prepared canvas arranged 

 vertically so as to act as a recording surface. There was a good deal of 

 variation in the character of the curves, depending upon the part of the 

 foot to which the pencil was attached, a toe curve being different from 

 one taken at the quarter. 



