Many able scientists have written on the theory of the gallop, but I believe Marey was the first to demonstrate, that in executing this movement, the horse left the ground with a fore foot and landed on a hind foot.
The Leap.
There is little essential difference in general characteristics of either of the several movements that have been described, but with a number of experiments made with horses while leaping, no two were found to agree in the manner of execution. The leap of the same horse at the same rate of speed, with the same rider, over the same hurdle, disclosed much variation in the rise, clearance, and descent of the animal. Apart from this, the horses were not thoroughly trained leapers, and the results are perhaps not representative of those that would be obtained from the action of a well-trained hunting horse. A few motions were, however, invariable. While the horse was raising his body to clear the hurdle, one hind foot was always in advance of the other, and exercised its last energy alone.
On the descent, the concussion was always received by one fore foot, supported by the other more or less rapidly, and sometimes as much as 30 inches in advance of where the first one struck, followed by the hind feet also, with intervals of time and distance between their several falls. It is highly probable future experiments will prove these observations to be invariable in leaping.
It is highly probable that these photographic investigations, which were executed with wet collodion plates with exposures not exceeding in some instances the one five-thousandth part of a second, will dispel many popular illusions as to gait, and that future and more exhaustive experiments, with all the advantages of recent chemical discoveries, will completely unveil to the artist all the visible muscular action of men and animals during their most rapid movements.
The employment of automatic apparatus for the purpose of obtaining a regulated succession of photographic exposures is too recent for its value to be properly understood, or to be generally used for scientific experiment; at a future time, the pathologist, the anatomist, and other explorers for hidden truths will find it indispensable for their complex investigations.
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