134 THE HORSE. 
to artists, and some of them, including the celebrated Leech, have tried 
the experiment of drawing the galloping horse properly; but their entire 
want of success shows the impossibility of the performance. 
AS IN THE CANTER 80 in the gallop a lead is always made of one leg 
before the other, and as one tires the other changes places with it. A 
good, true, and strong galloper will seldom require this relief, but a weak 
one, especially if not completely broken, will effect the change continually. 
Sometimes this causes the loss of a race, for it cannot be done without 
interfering with the action, and consequently with the pace. <A good 
horseman prefers that his horse should not confine himself to one lead, 
but he does not like him to change after he has once started, for the above 
reason. The right leg in front is more easy even to the male rider than 
the left, but not materially so, and except for female equestrianism no 
horse should be taught to lead invariably with the right leg either in the 
gallop or canter. In the change the truth or harmony of action is often 
disturbed, and the horse jerks himself and his rider in a disagreeable 
manner, which is another reason why the change of legs should not be 
encouraged. 
THERE IS A GREAT VARIATION in the length of the stride, and in the 
rounding or bending upwards of the foot under the knee. Sometimes 
even in a fast gallop the distance between the prints of the same feet will 
be no more than sixteen feet, while in others it will measure twenty-four, 
twenty-five, or even twenty-six feet. The first is too short for any 
race-horse ; but a moderately short stride enables the horse to get off with 
a quicker start, and to ascend and descend hills better than a very long 
one. Where, however, a distance of level ground is to be covered a long 
stride tells, and a horse possessing it has a great advantage over one whose 
gullop is short, however quick and smart it may be. For this long stride 
there must be length of limbs, especially of the two bones meeting at the 
stifle joint ; and this is the perfection of the form of the racehorse, as I 
have already described at page 92. 
THE AMBLE. 
LIKE THE TROT, this pace is performed by two legs alternately moving 
in exact correspondence with each other. Instead, however, of these 
being of opposite sides, they are of the same side, and one lateral half of 
the body is moved forward while the weight of the whole is supported on 
the other. The pace is altogether unnatural to the wild horse, but in 
some domestic breeds it has become naturalised, and the foal will in them 
display the amble long before it is taught anything by the hand of man. 
In the cameleopard the amble is the only kind of progression, whether 
the animal goes slowly or fast ; and in dogs, especially in pointers, grey- 
hounds, and Newfoundlands, this pace is occasionally displayed. For- 
metly an ambling palfrey was in great request for ladies’ use, but in the 
present day the pace is not regarded with favour by any of the inhabitants 
of the British Isles. 
RACKING, OR PACING, AND RUNNING. 
IN THIS CouNTRY no other paces are recognised than the five which I 
have already described, but in America a fast kind of amble is distinguished 
by the name of racking, or pacing. It is performed by two legs of the 
same side acting synchronously as in the amble, but they are moved with 
much more rapidity, and the result is a speed greater than that of the 
