THE MANEGE. 135 
fastest trot, by severai seconds in the mule. This will be apparent on con- 
sulting the record of the best performances of the American horses, at page 
32, where Pocahontas, a pacer, is set down as doing a mile in 2 minutes 174 
seconds, while their fastest mile trot on record occupied 2 minutes 193 
seconds. Running is an indescribable kind of trot, in which the limbs 
do not move regularly together, but each seems to act independently as 
in the walk. The consequence is that it is impossible for the rider of 
a running horse to rise in his stirrups, but the action being very easy there 
is no occasion for this relief. It is not capable of being performed at a 
slow rate, and it is generally produced among horses which are ridden 
without a saddle, and in which as a consequence the riders do not relieve 
themselves and their horses by rising in it. 
THE PACES OF THE MANEGE 
IN THE MILITARY SCHOOLS OF RIDING a variety of paces are taught even 
in the present day, but the old riding masters adopted many more, which 
are now discontinued. Some of them are intended to enable the soldier 
to use his sword or spear with double advantage, as the volte and semi- 
volte, but the majority of those still retained are for the purpose of 
carrying out the combined evolutions necessary to cavalry. The “ passage,” 
for instance, is a side movement, that enables a number of horses to be 
changed from close to open order, which would be a difficult task to per- 
form with horses not taught to perform it. Backing is likewise necessary 
for similar purposes; but this should always be taught to every horse, 
whether used by the military or by civilians. A minute description, 
however, of the several paces of the manége would occupy too much 
space here, and is only useful to the cavalry soldier, who will learn their 
nature much better from practical instruction by the riding-master of his 
regiment. 
LEAPING, OR JUMPING. 
THE DESCRIPTION of this act given by Percivall is most unsatisfactory. 
He says, ‘‘ The leap is either a sudden spring into the air, in which the feet 
quit the ground simultaneously, or else it is an act compounded of an 
imperfect rear and kick in quick or slow succession, according to the 
manner in which it is performed. ‘The leap can hardly be regarded as an 
act of progression ; commonly it being in a forward direction, undoubtedly 
progress is made by it, but it is possible for it to amount to no more than 
a jump or a bound off, and upon the same ground, as is the case when a 
horse is said to ‘ buck’ in his leaping, that is, to come down upon or near 
to the spot from which he arose.” Now in this sentence, short as it is, I 
maintain that several misstatements are made ; as I shall proceed to show. 
To begin with the latter part. If a horse is properly said to “buck” in 
his leaping, it is evident that the two cannot be synonymous, or there 
would be no occasion for the distinction, and therefore if “bucking” 
means jumping up and coming down on the same ground, which is the 
general acceptation of the term, leaping cannot mean the same, which it 
is said sometimes to do by Mr. Percivall in the quotation which I have 
adduced. When a horse simply “bucks” in his play he does not leap 
forward, but springs into the air, and even then he generally makes some 
progression. When he “bucks” in his leaps, he must progress, because 
he begins on one side of the obstacle to be overcome and finishes on the 
other. It is not meant that he then acts exactly as he does in play, or 
