LANDING OVER A JUMP. 117 



transmitted through them, if they had to bear the weight of 

 the body on landing. Such poor weight-bearers are they, 

 that they have great difficulty, as a rule, in enabling a horse 

 to walk a few yards on his hind legs. Almost all circus horses 

 which have to perform this trick, throw out, after a short time, 

 curbs, spavins and thoroughpins of amazing size. What, I 

 wonder, would be the state of the hocks of a hunter or chaser, 

 had he always to land first on his hind legs ! The fore limbs, 

 on the contrary, being attached to the body only by muscles, 

 are singularly well adapted to support shock, like that of 

 landing over a fence* Besides, if a horse, which, like all 

 other animals, is obliged to ''take off" from his hind legs, 

 were, also, to land on them, he would lose all the advantage 

 which the forward reach of his fore legs gives him. As we 

 have already seen, a horse in the gallop, after the period of 

 suspension, lands on a hind leg ; but in the leap, he lands on 

 a fore leg. 



In the well executed leap, the fact of the horse landing on 

 one fore leg and then on the other, lengthens the base of sup- 

 port, and thus increases the stability. The hind legs coming 

 down in the same manner enables the horse to at once take 

 up the gallop, which is in four periods, without loss of time 

 (Fig. 194). The safest way for a man, on the contrary, to 

 alight is on both feet kept together, with the knees somewhat 

 flexed (Fig, 35), in order to break the shock of concussion ; 

 for his body is placed vertically, and not horizontally, as is 

 the case with the horse. In drawing any comparison of this 

 kind, we must remember that our legs are attached to the 

 trunk by bony union, at our hip joints, and not, as in the fore 

 legs of the horse, by muscles which act as springs in nullifying 

 any injurious effect from the force of impact with the ground. 

 Again, in the horse, although the knees must be kept straight, 

 on landing, in order to insure stability ; the fetlock, elbow and 

 shoulder joints act as springs. As man is a plantigrade 

 animal (one that walks on his hocks ; p. 27), he must utilise 

 the ''play" of the knee-joints, with which to break the force 

 of concussion, when he lands on the ground with any great 



