to be the caricature which I bought. I explain these points, not to dwell upon my own ideas, but to aid the reader in understanding the different procedures of the different grand masters which I shall now discuss.
The difference between the quick piaffer and the slow is that in the quick piaffer the horse's legs, acting in diagonal, fall more quickly to the ground under the pull of gravity. But in any case, the two diagonal legs which support the body are acting only during the time during which the other two are in the air. Evidently, then, if two diagonal members remain longer upon the ground, the other two will have to stay longer in the air, and vice versa.
Now the question is, which requires the greater effort on the part of the horse, to keep its body balanced for the longer time on two feet, or to hold two legs off the ground and flexed?
But the shorter the time the feet remain in the air, the more rapid is the action, as in the quick piaffer. On the other hand, the slower the action, the greater the loss of the original upward impulse. The more powerful, therefore, must be the muscular contraction and the more accurate the equilibrium. Evidently, then, the horse needs more energy for the slow piaffer than for the quick; and more for the quick piaffer than for the passage, trot, or gallop, since in these last the animal, is helped by its own forward motion.
