ON THE WALKING PACE. 



159 



on the point of striking the ground, will not reach the place 

 of the fore-foot on the same side. 



The elevated and lengthened trot is represented in fig. 49, 

 which has already served to show the rider and his horse 

 furnished with the instruments for the purpose of forming 

 tracings of the various paces. The animal is depicted at the 

 instant which, in the notation, is represented by a dot ; that 

 is to say, during the time of suspension, at the moment when 

 the left diagonal biped has just risen and the right diagonal 

 biped is about to descend. 



OF THE WALKING PACE. 



Experiments on the walking pace. — The explanations into 

 wnich we have entered in order to analyse the tracings of a 

 trot, will facilitate the interpretation of that of the walking 

 pace, represented in fig. 50. These tracings have been obtained 

 from the same horse as the preceding ones. 



If we let fall a perpendicular from the points at which the 

 curves commence, we shall have the position of the successive 

 impacts of the four legs. On account of the thickness of the 

 style employed to trace these curves, the foot corresponding 

 with each of them is easily recognised, therefore we can 

 mark on each of these perpendicular lines the initial letters 

 of the foot which at this moment reaches the ground. The 

 order of succession of impacts is represented by the letters 

 A D, P G, A G, P D ; that is to say, right forefoot, left hind- 

 foot , left forefoot, right hind foot, which is the succession 

 admitted by writers on the subject. 



There remains to be determined the greater or less regu- 

 larity in the succession of these impacts, and the relative 

 extent of the intervals which separate them. For this purpose 

 it is sufficient to construct the notation of the rhythm of the 

 pressure of each foot according to the registered curves. 

 This notation for fig. 50 shows that the interval which sepa- 

 rates the impacts is always the same, and, consequently, that 

 the horse rests during the same time on the lateral as on the 

 diagonal bipeds. But this is not always the case. 



That we may render the successive positions of the centre 

 of gravity easily understood, we will explain in few words the 



