THE ROAD-HACK. 16% 
Macadamised roads, many of which are made of granite or flint, and are, 
therefore, as hard as iron. To gallop much on such a surface is to lame 
your hack; and even a fast trot is not to be indulged in for any distance, 
or on successive days, for fear of the same results. The Americans drive 
their trotters in their own country, and do not ride them, by which a 
faster pace may be obtained without injury; but in England the roads, 
being so much harder, soon compel a moderation of the fast trot, even in 
the imported horses, whose legs and feet are undoubtedly very sound and 
good, but still not capable of sustaining the wear and tear of granite roads 
at the rate of sixteen miles an hour. Hence, on our roads, we give up 
the gallop in favour of the walk and trot, which must be done cleverly. 
The former pace, especially, should be carefully inspected in selecting a 
hack, for nothing is so unpleasant and trying to the rider as an unsafe or 
rough walker. The fore foot should be well lifted and put down again on 
its heel with a corresponding action of the hind leg, by which, on the one 
hand, “knuckling over” is avoided, from reaching the ground too soon; 
and, on the other, “over-reaching,” from the opposite extreme. A good 
hack should walk nearly or quite five miles an hour, and though some 
will do considerably more, it is seldom by anything but a kind of shuffle, 
which is not pleasant to the rider, nor elegant to the spectator. The trot 
should be of that character that it may be brought down to eight miles an 
hour, or extended to fourteen; and this is the perfection of the pace, for 
few horses can do both well, being either too close to the ground in the 
former for safety, or too set and lofty in their action for the latter. No 
defect is worse than the unsafe action, which results from a weakness of 
the extensor muscles of the arm, and in which the trot is pretty good as 
long as the horse is not tired, but after a few miles the leg is not lifted 
with power enough, and the toe is constantly striking against some 
inequality of the ground, from which it ts not recovered. This marks the 
defect; for it must not be confounded with habitual stumbling, which is 
as likely to occur at starting as at any other time, and which is always 
easily detected by watching the mode of putting down the foot in the 
naturally unsafe trotter, where the toe touches the ground first, and the 
heel then follows, as is evidenced by the state of the tip of the shoe. 
Here a trip may occur often, and yet no fall follow, because the extensors 
are strong, and effect a recovery after the mischief has been nearly done. 
But when the extensors are weak, the toe, which has been well raised at 
first, after a few miles touches the ground, and, not being rapidly recovered, 
a fall ensues of the most severe character. For this reason it is necessary 
to ride a horse some distance before his action can be pronounced upon, 
and only then can it be said that he is fit for a timid or bad rider. As 
we shall hereafter find in discussing the mode in which the several paces 
are performed, the trot of our horses is somewhat different from that of 
the Americans, the knee in ours being more rounded, and the foot there- 
fore reaching the ground with a greater tendency to “toe” it. With 
regard to shape, though, as in the racehorse, there is a particular formation 
which is more likely to give good hacking powers than any other, yet 
experience teaches every horseman that it cannot be relied on either 
negatively or positively. From a stable full of hacks no one would dream 
of making a selection without seeing them out, for it would be a hundred 
to one that the same animal would not be fixed on before and after a 
trial, Every butcher's boy who has been a year or two in the trade will 
tell you that hacks, still more than racehorses, go in all shapes, and though 
oblique shouiders may be desirable, yet many a good hack is without 
