ON THE TROT. 



155 



also that the trot is a high pace, and that, in the interval 

 between two successive strokes, the animal is for an instant 

 raised above the ground. 



But we find disagreement when we come to estimate the 

 duration of this suspension. Thus, according to Bouley, it is 

 very short in proportion to the duration of the pressure ; 

 whilst Raabe thinks, on the contrary, that the pressure is 

 very short, so that the animal is a longer time in the air than 

 on the ground. 



In the notation of the tracing (fig. 45), it Is eeen that the 

 pressures are twice as long as the periods during which the 

 body is suspended above the ground. This experiment, there- 

 fore, would confirm the opinion of Bouley in opposition to 

 that of Raabe; but it appears to us that there is a great 

 variety in the relative duration of the pressures, and of the 

 periods of suspension above the ground during the trot. 

 Thus, certain horses running in harness have furnished 

 tracings in which the phase of suspension was scarcely 

 visible ; so that this form of trot resembled the low paces, 

 only preserving that characteristic of the free type which 

 arises from the perfect synchronism of the diagonal strokes of 

 the feet. We have not yet been able to study the movements 

 of rapid trotters ; in these perhaps we should see, in an 

 inverse ratio, the time of suspension increase over that of the 

 duration of pressures. 



If we seek to ascertain the correspondence between the 

 re- actions (R A and R P) and the movements of the limbs, we 

 see that the moment when the body of the animal is at the 

 lowest part of its vertical oscillation coincides precisely with 

 that at which its feet touch the ground. The time of suspen- 

 sion does not depend on the fact that the body of the horse is 

 projected into the air, but that all four legs are bent during 

 this short period. The maximum height of the suspension of 

 the body corresponds, on the contrary, with the end of the 

 pressure of the limbs on the ground. It seems, according to 

 the tracings, that the elevation of the body does not com- 

 mence till after each double impact, and that it continues 

 during the whole time of the pressure. 



It is also seen, in the same figure, that the re-actions of the 



