LOCOMOTOR SYSTEM 623 



A sudden movement of the extensors now straightens the limb, 

 and the foot is placed down flat or heel first. If the leg is not 

 fully straightened by the extensor muscles, the foot comes to 

 the ground toe first, with the knee slightly bent, and a stumble 

 follows. In heavy draught-work it is no uncommon thing to 

 see the toe put down first, but here the conditions are very 

 different. Some horses walk with a pair of lateral legs, both off 

 and both near alternately. The camel employs lateral legs 

 as a natural means of walking. 



The walk is a most important pace ; few horses are capable 

 of walking well, but it can be greatly improved by education. 

 The ordinary saddle-horse has a stride of from 5 J to 6 feet (1-67 

 to 1-83 metres) at a walk. A step made either by a pair of fore 

 or a pair of hind legs varies from 33 inches to 39 inches in length 

 (•84 to 1 metre). 



The Trot. 



A trot may be described as slow, ordinary, and flying. In 

 the latter there is a slight difference in the support given the 

 body, but in the other two the movements of the limbs are 

 identical. The trot is a very simple pace to observe, inasmuch 

 as the legs are worked in pairs, so that instead of four moving 

 in different times, there are two moving together. The two 

 are diagonal legs, one 0x4-1 



fore and the opposite 

 hind. These thrust 

 the body forwards off 

 the ground, and it 

 is received on their 

 fellows, which repeat 

 the movement. Dur- 

 ing each thrust there 

 is a period during 



Which the body is in FlG - 202.— Notation of the Trot. 



the air and no legs On In (1) the body is being propelled by diagonal legs ; 



the ground. In the (a) the body in transit and off the ground; (3) it 



° is received by opposite diagonals, and again 



trot there are two steps propelled. 

 to the stride, and two 



periods in each stride that the horse is in the air ; the steps 

 are always with diagonals, as shown in the notation in Fig. 202. 

 In Fig. 203 some of the characteristic phases of the trot may be 

 seen. In (1) the horse is on diagonals ; in (2) he has propelled 

 the body forward and off the ground ; in (3) the animal has 

 alighted on the opposite pair of diagonals ; and the process is 

 then repeated. In America the flying trot has long been culti- 

 vated, with the result that some remarkable velocities have been 



