TROTTING HORSE (continued).
In the second series the horse moves from C D to E F, where he takes the same attitude as that of number 1 of the first series.
In studying the actions of animals it will be observed, especially in the antelope and deer kind, that in leaping they land on their forefeet. Any hard articulations of the fore limbs with the rest of the skeleton could not submit to the shock of these landings. When they land, it is the soft yielding and elastic muscular parts of the shoulders and adjacent regions that absorb the force of the jolts.
The characteristic of life activity, flexion and extension, is exemplified clearly in the actions of an animal’s hind limbs as they double up in the preparation for a leap; and then suddenly spread out during the first part of the leap.
Taking it as a whole, in fleet-footed animals, the function of the hind limbs is to furnish the forward propelling force while that of the fore limbs is to land on the ground at an advanced position. This observation, of course, applies to certain rapid methods of progression, and it will do as a general statement only, as it has been shown by photographs that the fore limbs have a share in giving an impulse in locomotion. For example, photographs of the horse in action show the quick springing action of the fetlock and the pastern joints as they bend in the hoof’s impact, and its subsequent extension when the foot leaves the ground.
In a rapid walk of a horse a phase of movement that is apprehended by the eye is the lifting of a forefoot and then the immediate impact of the hind limb of the same side as it nearly falls into the impression left by the fore foot. There are speeds in which the footprints coincide. In a more rapid pace than a walk, the imprint of the hind foot is farther forward than that of the forefoot. As the speed increases the stride lengthens and the footprints are much farther in advance.
In a certain type of humorous animation—the panorama—to be explained in a succeeding chapter, the artist is quite satisfied with his animation of a quadruped if a lively bewildering effect of agitated limbs is produced on the screen. This bewildering blur has after all a resemblance to that which the eye sees in rapidly running animals; namely, a confused disturbance of limbs. This effect on the screen always causes laughter and the artist considers that as a proof of the success of his work.
To produce this effect, the animator selects from his studies three or five consecutive positions of a gallop, or trot, that will animate well. This means, specifically, that any particular drawing should, with the next in order, give an appearance of movement when they are synthesized. The drawings are made in a cycle so that when used continuously in their order they will give the illusion desired.
