Fig. 124.—The Amble: Right Lateral Pressure.[72]
[72] The figures which, in the present study, reproduce the different paces, have been made from our articulated horse (see the note on [p. 282]).
And if we recollect the three phases of pressure (see [p. 289], and [Figs. 121], [122]), we shall comprehend, in looking at the diagrams, that, at the initial stage (A), the limbs are commencing their pressure, and are oblique downwards and forwards; that afterwards (B) the two limbs are vertical, since they are at the middle of the pressure stage; and that finally (C) they are oblique downwards and backwards, for it is then the termination of their pressure ([Fig. 124]).
During the time that the right limbs are pressing (notation, white bands) the left limbs are raised; afterwards these latter take up the pressure (gray bands), and then the right limbs are raised in their turn.
During the pace of ambling the weight of the body, which is wholly sustained by the limbs of one side only, is not in equilibrium, so that the limbs which are raised return by a brisk movement to the position of support in order to re-establish it.
The Trot.—We have just seen that, in order to represent the amble, the two marchers moved their right limbs simultaneously, and then their left ones.
Let us suppose now that the hinder man anticipated by half a pace the movement of the front one, then will be found realized the association and the nature of the displacements of the limbs during the pace of the trot.
By this anticipation of a half-step (we have defined, [p. 288], what is to be understood by the word step), it follows that when the marcher who is in front advances his right leg it is the left leg of the marcher who follows him that is carried in the same direction. We should thus conclude from this that the trot is characterized by a succession of displacements of the diagonal bipeds.
