CANTER WITHOUT GAINING GROUND. 319 



The thoroughbred Gant, by Gantelet out of Mile, de 

 Romanerie, did the canter to the rear as if it were play, and 

 after he had gone round the school at this pace he was as 

 fresh as before. 



Baucher did not know or was not able to describe the 

 canter to the rear. The following, which is his definition of 

 it in the fourteenth edition of his " Method of Equitation," 

 p. 155, evidently corresponds to the way he did it : — "In the 

 rein back at the canter the times are the same as those of the 

 ordinary canter ; but the fore legs, instead of gaining ground 

 when raised, are carried back, in order that the hind legs may 

 do the same retrograde movement immediately the fore legs 

 are placed on the ground." 



Ho\\' could Baucher make such a description of a canter 

 to the rear, after having said that it was like the canter to 

 the front ? No doubt it is like the canter to the front, and 

 in the rasseinbhr it is in four time ; but it is precisely for this 

 reason that we cannot give the name of canter to a pace in 

 which the hind legs do not make their retrograde movement 

 before the fore legs are placed on the ground. 



What, then, is this pace in which the two fore feet and 

 the two hind feet respectively come to the ground at the 

 same time. Under these conditions where is the canter ? 



There is no need to be a great horseman to understand 

 that Baucher alludes to a pace of two time, the first time 

 being made by the hind quarters, the second by the forehand. 

 But that is not a canter ; it is plainly little jumps to the rear. 

 There cannot be a canter unless the fore legs and the hind 

 legs are respectively put down one after another ; and 

 further, when one of the hind legs is on the ground at the 

 same time as the opposite fore leg, they form the left 

 diagonal when the horse is cantering to the right, and the 

 right diagonal when he is cantering to the left. 



Baucher invented the expression, " canter to the rear," but 



