Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 6.djvu/151

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THE PACES OF THE HORSE.
139

The notation, Fig. 12, enables us to follow (in A) the succession of impacts; and shows (in B) the succession of the limbs which cause these pressures on the ground. The reactions of this pace, produced at the withers, are seen in Fig. 11 (R). There is an undulatory elevation, which lasts all the time that the animal touches the ground; in

Fig. 12.—Gallop in Three-time.A, indication of three time; B, indication of the number of feet which form the support of the body at each instant of the gallop in three-time.

this elevation are recognized the effects of the three impacts, which give it a triple undulation. The minimum elevation of the curve corresponds, as in the trot, with the moment when the feet do not touch the ground. Therefore, it is not a projection of the body into the air, which constitutes the time of suspension of the gallop. By comparing the reactions of this pace with those of the trot (Fig. 5), we see that in the gallop the rise and fall of the body are effected in a less sudden

Fig. 13.—House galloping in the First Time (Right Foot advancing), the Hind Left Foot only on the Ground.—The white dot, in the notation, corresponds with the instant at which the horse is represented.