Selecting the horse for the purposes of illustration, we find that during his slowest progressive movement—the walk—he has always two, and, for a varying period, three feet on the ground at once. With a fast walking horse the time of support upon three feet is exceedingly brief; while during a very slow walk all four feet are occasionally on the ground at the same instant. The successive order of what may be termed foot fallings are these. Commencing with the landing of the left hind foot, the n

By some observers the perfect trot is described as an absolutely synchronous movement of the diagonal feet. This simultaneous action may be considered desirable, but it probably never occurs. Sometimes the fore foot will be raised before the diagonal hind foot, sometimes afterwards; but in either instance, the foot raised first will strike the ground first; repeated experiments with many racing and other trotting horses confirmed this want of simultaneity. Selecting for an example of the trot a

Assuming our observation of this movement to commence when, during a stride of about 10 feet, the left hind foot has just struck the ground slightly to the rear of where the right fore foot is resting; the left fore leg will be well advanced but still flexed, with the toe pointed downwards, and the right hind foot having been the last to leave the ground, will be thrust backwards with the pastern nearly horizontal. As the right fore foot leaves the ground, the left fore leg is gradually straight

The rack differs from the trot in the nearly synchronous action of the laterals instead of the diagonals . In some countries the rack is naturally adopted by the horse as one of his gaits, but it is probably caused by the effects of training exercised over many generations of his ancestors. The movements already described are regular in their action, and a stride may be divided into two parts, which are essentially similar to each other....

and the gallop, however, cannot be so divided, and a complete stride in either of those gaits is a combination of several different movements. The canter is usually regarded as a slow gallop, probably from the facility with which a change from one gait to the other can be effected; an important difference will, however, be observed. Assuming a horse after his propulsion through the air, during a stride of 10 feet, to have just landed on his left hind foot, the right hind foot will be on the poin

This movement has in all ages been employed by artists to convey the impression of rapid motion, although, curiously enough, the attitude in which the horse has been almost invariably depicted is one which is impracticable during uniform progressive motion. When during a rapid gallop, with a stride of 20 feet, a horse after his flight through the air lands on his left hind foot, the right hind will be suspended over it at an elevation of 12 or 15 inches, and several inches to the rear of and abo

There is little essential difference in general characteristics of either of the several movements that have been described, but with a number of experiments made with horses while leaping, no two were found to agree in the manner of execution. The leap of the same horse at the same rate of speed, with the same rider, over the same hurdle, disclosed much variation in the rise, clearance, and descent of the animal. Apart from this, the horses were not thoroughly trained leapers, and the results a