Part 2 (2/2)

When, therefore, during a walk, a horse is supported on two legs, with two feet suspended between them, each pair are laterals. On the other hand, when the suspended feet are respectively in advance of, and behind the supporting legs, each pair are diagonals.

These invariable rules have been unknown or ignored by many distinguished artists of modern times.

THE AMBLE.

The amble is a method of progressive motion with the same sequence of foot fallings as the walk, but in which a hind foot or a fore foot is lifted from the ground in advance of its fellow hind foot or its fellow fore foot being placed thereon. The support of the body therefore devolves alternately upon a single foot and upon two feet; the single foot being alternately a hind foot and a fore foot, and the two feet being alternately laterals and diagonals. At no time is the body entirely unsupported.

The following series of ill.u.s.trations will clearly demonstrate the consecutive foot fallings and some characteristic phases of an ambling stride:

[Ill.u.s.tration: SOME CONSECUTIVE PHASES OF THE AMBLE.]

The amble has various local names, such as the ”single foot,” the ”fox trot,” etc. It has sometimes been erroneously confused with the rack or the so-called ”pace;” it is the most gentle and agreeable to the rider of all methods of locomotion of the horse, while the rack is the most ungraceful and disagreeable.

In Scott's romances are many allusions to the ”ambling palfry.” Ben Jonson in ”Every Man in His Humor” speaks of going ”out of the old hackney-pace to a fine, easy amble,” and d.i.c.kens in ”Barnaby Rudge” refers to ”the gray mare breaking from her sober amble into a gentle trot.”

The ambling gait is natural to the elephant, and to the horse, the mule and the a.s.s; but in many countries these latter animals are not encouraged in its use.

THE TROT.

The trot is a more or less rapid progressive motion of a quadruped in which the diagonal limbs act nearly simultaneously in being alternately lifted from and placed on the ground, and in which the body of the animal is entirely unsupported twice during each stride.

Selecting for the purpose of ill.u.s.tration the phases occurring during two steps or one-half of a stride of 18 feet in length by a horse trotting at the rate of a mile in two minutes and twelve seconds, we find that at the instant his right fore foot strikes the ground, the left hind foot is a few inches behind the point where it will presently strike. As the feet approach the ground, the right hind leg is drawn forward with the pastern nearly horizontal, while the left fore leg is flexed under the body. After the feet strike the ground and the legs approach a vertical position the pasterns are gradually lowered, and act as springs to break the force of the concussion until they are sometimes bent to a right angle with the legs.

At this period the fore foot is raised so high as to frequently strike the elbow, while the diagonal hind foot is comparatively but little above the ground, and is about to pa.s.s to the front of the left hind.

The pasterns gradually rise as the legs pa.s.s the vertical until the right fore foot has left the ground and the last propelling force is being exercised by the left hind foot; which accomplished, the animal is in mid air.

The right hind foot continues its onward motion until it is sometimes much in advance of its lateral fore foot, the former, however, being gradually lowered, while the latter is being raised. The right hind and both fore legs are now much flexed, while the left hind is stretched backwards to its greatest extent with the bottom of the foot turned upwards, the left fore leg is being thrust forwards and gradually straightened, with the toe raised as the foot approaches the ground; which accomplished, with a subst.i.tution of the left limbs for the right, we find them in the same relative positions as when we commenced our examination, and one-half of the stride is completed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SOME CONSECUTIVE PHASES OF THE TROT.]

With slight and immaterial differences, such as might be caused by irregularities of the ground, these movements are repeated by the other pair of diagonals, and the stride is then complete.

If the stride of a trotting horse is divided into two portions, representing the comparative distances traversed by the aggregate of the body while the feet are in contact with, and while they are entirely clear of, the ground, the relative measurements will be found to vary very greatly, they being contingent upon length of limb, weight, speed, and other circ.u.mstances.

Heavily built horses will sometimes merely drag the feet just above the surface, but, in every instance of a trot, the _weight_ of the body is really unsupported twice during each stride. It sometimes happens that a fast trotter, during the four steps of a stride, will have all his feet clear of the ground for a distance exceeding one-half of the length of the entire stride. Upon landing, a fore foot almost always precedes its diagonal hind.

It will be observed in the ill.u.s.trations that while during the fast trot the fore feet are lifted so high that they frequently strike the breast, the hind feet are raised but little above the surface of the ground. The trot is common to all the single-toed and to nearly all the cloven-footed and soft-footed animals. It has, however, not been recorded as being adopted by the elephant, the camel, or the giraffe.

THE RACK.

The rack, sometimes miscalled the ”pace,” is a method of quadrupedal locomotion in which two lateral feet with nearly synchronous action are placed upon and lifted from the ground alternately with the other laterals, the body of the animal being in the intervals entirely without support. The distance which the propelling feet hurl the animal through the air depends, as with other movements, upon a variety of circ.u.mstances; at a high rate of speed the distance will be about one-half the total length of the stride.

Upon landing, a hind foot usually precedes its lateral fore.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SOME CONSECUTIVE PHASES OF THE RACK.]

The rack is an ungraceful gait of the horse, and disagreeable to those who seek comfort in riding.

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