Abstract
II. III. The Paces of the Horse.—Every one can recognise whether a horse is walking, trotting, or galloping, and yet few would be able to point out the rhythm and order of succession of the movements of the limbs in different paces. These movements, in fact, succeed each other too rapidly for the eye to follow them, and their rhythmic succession is more readily perceived by the ear than by the eye. It is indeed ordinarily by the ear that we become aware of a horse's pace. When at each return of the step (revolution du pas) we hear two distinct strokes of the hoofs, we call it an amble, or a trot; three strokes unequally separated denote a gallop; lastly, four strokes indicate a foot pace. But these paces may be more or less irregular, variable, or crippled; besides that, when an animal passes in a very short space of time from one pace to another, how shall we decide upon the manner in which the transition is effected? To clear up these points great efforts have been made by horse-trainers and veterinary surgeons, to whom the questions involved are of considerable importance.
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A Study in Locomotion 1 . Nature 19, 464–467 (1879). https://doi.org/10.1038/019464a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/019464a0