OF THE WALKING PACE. 



161 



footfalls, beginning with that of the right fore-foot, which is 

 marked No. 1, we shall divide the figures into successive por- 

 tions, in which will be found the impacts, sometimes of two 

 legs on the same side (lateral biped), at others, of two placed 

 diagonally (diagonal biped). Thus, from 1 to 2, the horse 

 will rest on the right lateral biped ; from 2 to 3, on the right 

 diagonal biped (that is to say, on that in which the right foot 

 comes first) ; from 3 to 4, on the left lateral biped ; from 4 

 to 5, on the left diagonal biped ; again, from 5 to 6, the horse 

 would find himself, as at the beginning, on the right lateral 

 biped. 



This experiment has reference entirely to the standard 

 theory of the pace (see No. 5 of the synoptical table), but 

 some horses walk in a manner somewhat different. 



Fig. 51 is the notation of the walking pace of a horse 

 which rested longer on the lateral than on the diagonal 

 pressures. 



Sometimes the contrary is observed ; in the transitions 

 from the walk to the trot, for instance, we have found the 

 duration of the diagonal pressures predominate. 



This study, in order to be complete, ought to have been 

 carried on under more favourable conditions than those which 

 we have hitherto been able to meet with. It would be 

 desirable to obtain many horses belonging to different breeds ; 

 to study their movements when led by the hand, mounted, or 

 harnessed ; to vary the load which they carry or draw ; to 

 experiment on level or sloping ground, &c. All this can only 

 be effected by men especially interested in these inquiries, and 

 placed in favourable circumstances to undertake them. 



While making observations on draught horses, it has 

 seemed to us that when the animal strives to re- act against 

 the weight of the carriage pressing upon him, he may have 

 three feet on the ground at once. This Borelli considered 

 to be the normal walking pace ; we have just seen, on the 

 contrary, that in the natural walking pace there are never 

 more than two feet on the ground at a time. 



As to the re-actions during the walking pace, they are not 

 represented in fig. 50. We have ascertained generally that 

 the re-actions of the fore-limbs are the only ones of any im- 



