Fig. 125.—Notation of the Gait of the Trot in the Horse (after Professor Marey).
Fig. 126.—The Trot; Right Diagonal Pressure.
Indeed, if we examine the notation of this gait ([Fig. 125]), we see that with the pressure of the right fore-foot is found associated the pressure of the left hind-foot. It is, accordingly, a typical diagonal biped ([Fig. 126]).
Fig. 127.—The Trot; Time of Suspension.
But it is necessary to add that these groups of pressures do not succeed one another without interruption, except in the slow trot. In the ordinary trot, or in that in which the animal’s strides are very long, the body between each of the double pressures which we have just been considering is projected forward with such force that it remains for an instant separated from the ground. This is what we designate by the name of time of suspension ([Fig. 127]). The notation in this case would be slightly different from that which we reproduce above, in this sense: that between the diagonal pressures there then would be found an interval, since during the time the body is suspended none of the feet can produce a pressure-mark (see, with regard to these intervals, the notations of the running of a man, [Fig. 118], and [Fig. 119], 3, 4).
The Walk.—Although slow, a feature which would seem to make it possible to permit its analysis in a horse when walking, this pace is difficult to comprehend without sufficient preliminary study.