Commencing again with the first position; it is thus seen that when a horse during a walk is on two feet, and the other two feet are suspended between the supporting legs, the suspended feet are laterals. On the other hand, when the suspended feet are severally in advance of and behind the supporting legs, they are diagonals. These invariable rules seem to be neglected or entirely ignored by many of the most eminent animal painters of modern times. _The Trot._ By some observers the perfect trot is described as an absolutely synchronous movement of the diagonal feet. This simultaneous action may be considered desirable, but it probably never occurs. Sometimes the fore foot will be raised before the diagonal hind foot, sometimes afterwards; but in either instance, the foot raised first will strike the ground first; repeated experiments with many racing and other trotting horses confirmed this want of simultaneity. Selecting for an example of the trot a horse making a stride of 18 feet in length, we find that at the instant his right fore foot strikes the ground, the left hind foot is a few inches behind the point where it will presently strike at about 38 or 40 inches to the rear of the fore foot. When both feet have reached the ground, the right hind leg is stretched back almost to its fullest extent, with the pastern nearly horizontal, while the left fore leg is flexed under the body. As the legs approach a vertical position the pasterns are gradually lowered, and act as springs to break the force of the concussion until they are bent nearly at right angles with the legs. At this period the left fore foot is raised to its greatest height, and will frequently strike the elbow, while the right hind foot is but little raised from the ground and is about to pass to the front of the left hind. The pasterns gradually rise as the legs decline backwards until the right fore foot has left the ground and the last propelling force is being exercised by the left hind foot; which accomplished, the animal is in mid air. The right hind foot continues its onward motion until it is sometimes much in advance of its lateral fore foot, the former, however, being gradually lowered, while the latter is being raised. The right hind and both fore legs are now much flexed, while the left hind is stretched backwards to its greatest extent with the bottom of the foot turned upwards, the left fore leg is being thrust forwards and gradually straightened, with the toe raised as the foot approaches the ground; which accomplished, with a substitution of the left limbs for the right we find them in the same relative positions as when we commenced our examination, and one half of the stride is completed. With slight and immaterial differences, such as might be caused by irregularities of the ground, these movements are repeated by the other pair of diagonals, and the entire stride is then complete.