152 FORM AND ACTION. 



first, by the position they assume, one in advance of the other, in 

 the gallop ; secondly, by the clatter the steps of a horse in a gallop 

 are known to make upon hard or resonant ground, and which may 

 be heard either by a spectator or by the rider himself ; whence we 

 probably derive the phrase a rattling gallop. 



In the WALK, we found the four limbs acting in such regular 

 alternation, crosswise or diagonally, that they seemed to beat one, 

 two, three, four. In the trot, we found this regularity of move- 

 ment, in regard to time, interrupted and in part destroyed ; the 

 same order or succession of movement — the diagonal — being still 

 preserved. In the gallop, however, both the time and order are 

 inverted. The diagonal movement is no longer seen. Both fore 

 limbs are projected together, one more or less in advance of the 

 other ; and their projecture is followed by the simultaneous ad- 

 vance of the hind limbs, the feet of the latter lodging upon the 

 ground contiguous to the places just quitted by those of the former, 

 with that hind foot foremost which corresponds to the fore foot that 

 is leading. So that galloping differs (leaving the consideration of 

 speed out of the question) from either walking or trotting, in the 

 circumstance of the fore and hind feet being projected in pairs, and 

 also in that of the fore and hind feet of the same side being gene- 

 rally in advance of their fellows. 



With the fore leg which is projected in advance of its fellow, 

 the horse is said in his canter or gallop to lead : commonly, more 

 from the directions of art than from any propensity of nature, the 

 right is the limb that takes the lead, it being by riding-masters 

 and horsemen of judgment regarded as a fault to lead with the left 

 leg. Whether natural inclination be for the right or for the left 

 leg, I will not pretend to say ; but this I know from experience, 

 that it is an extremely tiresome task to make some horses lead 

 with the right leg. There are very good equestrians, however, to 

 whom it is quite a matter of indifference which is the leading leg, 

 providing the horse canters or gallops in a proper form. The 

 slower the pace the more conspicuously prominent, in general, is 

 the leading limb : as the pace increases, this becomes less and less 

 remarkable, until at length, at full speed, so even is the projecture 

 of the limbs that it is difficult or impossible to say which is taking 

 the lead. Where the opposite leg is leading behind to what is in 



