Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 6.djvu/142

130 movements more quickly or more slowly than the one behind, we see reproduced all the rhythms of the movements which characterize the different paces of the horse. Many have seen in the circus the figures of animals whose legs are formed by those of two men, with their bodies concealed in what represents the body of the quadruped. This grotesque imitation bears a striking resemblance to the animal when the movements of the two men are so well coordinated as to reproduce the rhythms of the paces.

Assuming the horse to be composed of two bipeds walking one behind



the other, let these, in progressing steadily, go through the same movements at the same time; that is, let the right leg of each be advanced at the same time and rate, the feet striking the ground so as to give but a single sound. While the body is resting on these, the left legs are simultaneously thrown forward, each striking the ground at the same moment, and so on alternately. The pace thus produced is known as the amble, and is the simplest of all the paces of the horse. The notation of its rhythms is given in Fig. 1. The upper line is derived from the movements of the anterior, or foremost biped; the



lower, from the movements of the posterior or hindmost biped. The foot-falls of the right and left foot being produced at the same time by the biped walking in front, and by the one which follows, must be