Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 6.djvu/147

Rh body of the horse is projected into the air, but upon the fact that all four legs are bent during this short period. The maximum height of the suspension of the body corresponds, on the contrary, with the end of the pressure of the limbs on the ground. It is also seen that the reactions of the fore-limbs exceed those of the hind ones. This inequality appears to be constant, and is still more marked in the walking-pace.

We have learned that one of the chief characteristics of the free trot is the entire synchronism of the strokes of each diagonal biped. There is a form of this pace, however, called by M. Marey the irregular trot, where such synchronism is wanting, the hind limb of one or both diagonal bipeds striking the ground an instant later than the corresponding fore-limb. Fig. 6 represents the notation of the irregular trot. The stroke of the left fore-foot is seen to be a little earlier than that of the right hind-foot, and the same is true of the limbs belonging to the right diagonal biped.

The low and short trot is represented in Fig. 7. The diagonal impacts succeed each other without interval, as may be seen in the notation placed below the figure. The animal has been depicted from the notation. The instant which the artist has chosen is that marked in the notation by a white dot. At this moment, as the superposition indicates, the left fore-foot is at the end of its pressure; the right fore-foot is about to reach the ground; the right hind-foot is finishing its pressure, and the left hind-foot is about to fall.