ANIMAL MECHANISM, 



CHAPTER VI. 



EXPERIMENTS ON THE PACES OF THE HORSE. 



(Continued.) 



Experiments on the gallop — Notation of the gallop — Re-actions — Bases of 



support — Pistes of the gallop— Representation of a galloping horse in 



the various times of this pace. 

 Transitions, or passage, from one step to the other — Analysis of the paces 



by means of the notation rule — Synthetic reproduction of the 



different paces of the horse. 



or THE GALLOP, 



Several different paces, the common character of which is 

 that irregular impacts return at regular intervals, are compre- 

 hended under this name. Most of the writers distinguish 

 three kinds of gallop by the rhythm of the impacts, and 

 name them, according to this rhythm, gallop in two, three, 

 and four time. The most ordinary kind is the gallop in three- 

 time ; this we shall study in the first place. 



Experiments on the gallop. Fig. 55 has been obtained from 

 a horse which galloped in three-time. At first sight, the 

 notation of this pace reminds us of that which we have 

 represented when speaking of human gallop (fig. 36, p. 134), 

 a pace used by children when playing at horses." It 

 appears that the notation of the horse's gallop has been 

 obtained by placing one over another two of these notations 

 of the biped gallop ; so that, in fact, the comparison used by 

 Duges is perfectly just, even when it is applied to the gallop. 



Analysis of the tracing. At the commencement of the figure, 

 the animal is suspended above the ground ; then comes the 

 impact P G, which announces that the left hind-foot touches 

 the ground. This is the foot diagonally opposed to that which 

 the horse places forward in the gallop, and whose impact A D 

 will be produced the last. Between these two impacts, and 

 distinctly in the middle of the interval which separates them, 

 comes the simultaneous impact of the two feet forming the 



