THE GALLOP. 161 



tinued rather by the successive action of the two hind feet at one 

 moment, and of that of the two fore feet at the next moment, 

 than by the synchronous efforts of either biped, as happens in the 

 leap. The two great propellers of the animal machine — the hind 

 feet — are in the leap required to act simultaneously, to make one 

 grand propulsory effort : not so in the gallop, that being a move- 

 ment requiring maintaining, not by synchronous exhausting efforts 

 of the hind feet, but in swift succession, first by one then by the 

 other ; and the same as regards the office performed by the fore 

 limbs ; which latter probably amounts to little more in effect than 

 the sustentation of the fore parts of the body. 



The vault into the air required for the leap is only to be effected 

 by extraordinary subitaneous effort ; but the stride of the gallop, 

 requiring frequent repetition, does not exact this effort — amounts, 

 in fact, to no more than a sort of lift from the ground, multiplied 

 into a reiteration of forcible heavings forward, maintaining, in- 

 creasing, or diminishing the momentum of speed, effectuated by 

 throwing the hind feet as far forward underneath the body as pos- 

 sible, plunging them one after the other with inappreciable rapidity 

 into the earth, and thus by two strenuous thrusts against the ground, 

 one in aid of the other, working the animal machine onward in its 

 fleet — almost flying course. In the gallop as in the trot, no sooner 

 is a certain momentum acquired than by each successive propul- 

 sion of the hind feet the body is sprung or lifted off the ground, 

 flying, as it appears, in the air ; and the greater the speed the more 

 this volitation becomes apparent ; hence the appellation given to 

 the pace manifesting the utmost speed of FLYING GALLOP. Even 

 this, however, according to my judgment, is an action different from 

 leaping. When a horse leaps or jumps in his gallop — which he 

 will do sometimes when he is beany, and has but just emerged out 

 of his stable — he is said to buck, because his action then resembles 

 that of the deer, in whom the gallop might with a great deal more 

 propriety be called a succession of leaps : even the deer, however, 

 cannot continue this bucking action after being driven into his 

 speed or into a state of fatigue, shewing that in him it is to be re- 

 garded rather as a gambol than as his proper working onward 

 action. And that the hind and fore feet, in pairs, are not grounded 

 synchronously, I think, admits of demonstration in two ways : — 



