Part 5

The illustrations and condensed definitions of the various gaits were prepared by the Author for the "Standard Dictionary." Before studying these it is essential that the meaning of the terms step and stride should be distinctly understood.

A STEP is an act of progressive animal motion, in which one of the supporting members of the body is thrust in the direction of the motion and the support transferred, wholly, or in part, from one member to another.

A STRIDE is an act of progressive animal motion, which, for its completion, requires all of the supporting members of the body, in the exercise of their proper functions, to be consecutively and regularly thrust in the direction of the movement until they hold the same relative positions in respect to each other as they did at the commencement of the notation. In the bipedal walk or run a step is one-half of a stride or full round movement. With all quadrupeds, except the kangaroo and other jumpers, four steps are necessary to complete the stride.

THE WALK.

The WALK is a method of progressive motion with a regular individual succession of limb movements. In the evolution of the terrestrial vertebrates the walk was probably the first adopted method of locomotion, and its execution is regulated by the law that the movement of the superior limb precedes the movement of its lateral inferior limb. This is proved not merely by the ordinary quadrupedal walk, but by the suspended motion of the sloth; the crawling of the child upon the ground, the erect walk of man; and the inverse limb movements of the ape tribe.

The relative time intervals of the foot-fallings vary greatly with many species of animals, and even with the same animal under different conditions.

Selecting the horse for the purpose of illustration we find that during the walk--his slowest progressive movement--he has always two, and for a varying period of time, or distance, three feet on the ground at once, while during a very slow walk the support will devolve alternately upon three feet and upon four feet.

If the notation of the foot-fallings commences with the landing of the right hind foot, the order in which the other feet are placed upon the ground will be: the right fore, the left hind, and the left fore, commencing again with the right hind.

Assuming that our observation of the stride of a horse during an ordinary walk commences with the landing of the right hind foot, the body will then be supported by both hind and the left fore feet. The left hind is now lifted, the support of the body devolves upon the diagonals--the right hind and left fore--and continues so supported until the left hind is in the act of passing to the front of the right; when the right fore is next placed on the ground. The left fore is now raised, and the body is supported by the right laterals, until the landing of the left hind foot relieves its fellow hind of a portion of its weight. Two steps or one-half of a stride have now been made, and with the substitution of the right feet for the left, two other steps will be executed in practically the same manner, and a full stride will have been completed. We thus see that during the walk a quadruped is supported by eight different methods, the supporting limbs being consecutively:

Both hind and left fore.

Right hind and left fore diagonals.

Right hind and both fore.

Right hind and right fore laterals.

Both hind and right fore.

Left hind and right fore diagonals.

Left hind and both fore.

Left hind and left fore laterals.

Followed as at the commencement with both hind and left fore.

When, therefore, during a walk, a horse is supported on two legs, with two feet suspended between them, each pair are laterals. On the other hand, when the suspended feet are respectively in advance of, and behind the supporting legs, each pair are diagonals.

These invariable rules have been unknown or ignored by many distinguished artists of modern times.

THE AMBLE.

The amble is a method of progressive motion with the same sequence of foot fallings as the walk, but in which a hind foot or a fore foot is lifted from the ground in advance of its fellow hind foot or its fellow fore foot being placed thereon. The support of the body therefore devolves alternately upon a single foot and upon two feet; the single foot being alternately a hind foot and a fore foot, and the two feet being alternately laterals and diagonals. At no time is the body entirely unsupported.

The following series of illustrations will clearly demonstrate the consecutive foot fallings and some characteristic phases of an ambling stride:

The amble has various local names, such as the "single foot," the "fox trot," etc. It has sometimes been erroneously confused with the rack or the so-called "pace;" it is the most gentle and agreeable to the rider of all methods of locomotion of the horse, while the rack is the most ungraceful and disagreeable.

In Scott's romances are many allusions to the "ambling palfry." Ben Jonson in "Every Man in His Humor" speaks of going "out of the old hackney-pace to a fine, easy amble," and Dickens in "Barnaby Rudge" refers to "the gray mare breaking from her sober amble into a gentle trot."

The ambling gait is natural to the elephant, and to the horse, the mule and the ass; but in many countries these latter animals are not encouraged in its use.

THE TROT.

The trot is a more or less rapid progressive motion of a quadruped in which the diagonal limbs act nearly simultaneously in being alternately lifted from and placed on the ground, and in which the body of the animal is entirely unsupported twice during each stride.