LECTURES ON HORSES. 
1*25 
and that the centre of gravity falls near the centre of the parallelo- 
gram — though, according to his plate, placed behind that centre 
instead of before — he tells us the animal makes his first movement 
with a hind foot, “ Incipit gressus ab uno pede postico /” and as- 
signs as the reason for this, the necessity of establishing a new centre 
of gravity in advance prior to the movement of progression taking 
place. 
Solleysell knew better than this ; he had looked for himself, and 
not pinned his faith on tradition : — “ In a walk,” says this true 
observer of nature, “ the horse lifts the near fore leg and far hind 
leg together, and has them in the air at the same time ; and when 
he sets these down he lifts the other two, which were cross upon 
the ground ; viz. his far fore leg and near hind leg, and so alter- 
nately each remove. This is the true motion of a horse’s legs 
upon a walk; which is the same with that of the trot, although the 
paces are different.” SirWm. Hope, the translator of Solleyselfs 
invaluable work, “ The Compleat Horseman,” appends to this pas- 
sage a comment, in which he says, “ Our author is here in a little 
mistake about the motion of a horse’s legs in the walk,” and by 
way of proving the error, refers to his “ Supplement of Horseman- 
ship” appended to the translation ; where he again agitates the 
question, finding the same fault with the Duke of Newcastle as he 
had before done with Solleysell, and in great confidence lays down 
the law, that “ the true motion of a horse’s legs upon his walk, 
according to my own observation, which upon tryal will be found 
to be as true as it is new, is one, two, three, four, as followeth. 
The horse, when he beginneth his walk, must either lead with the 
legs on the right side, or with those of the left : if he lead with 
those of the right, then the first foot he lifteth is his far hind foot, 
which maketh one, &c.” Now, as far as my observation has gone, 
every horse — I believe I might say every quadruped — usually 
makes his first step with a fore, not with a hind foot. I have cer- 
tainly remarked horses and cattle at pasture, who, with their legs 
in the parallelogramical or natural position, have, on occasions, 
moved a hind instead of a fore leg first, in the act of advancing 
foot by foot, as quadrupeds do while grazing; but I have rarely or 
never been able to detect the same thing when horses are about 
setting off in earnest to walk or to trot : it is not at all unlikely 
but that Borelli might have made his observation on cattle pastur- 
ing, though at such a time their movements can hardly be regarded 
as those of ordinary progression. At the mandate of the will to 
move forward the fore leg is first put in motion, the order of suc- 
cession of movement in the walk appearing to be this : — supposing 
the off or right fore leg to move first, that is no sooner carried off 
the ground than the left or near hind foot is raised, the former being 
