THE LIGHT-HARNESS BREEDS OF HORSES 101 



equal footing. The craze for speed and the desire to put 

 the get of stallions in the list, increased the popularity of 

 the pacer at a bound. 



It was found, too, that it was a very easy matter to 

 change the gait of most horses from trotting to pacing, 

 especially with the use of hobbles or hopples, as they are 

 interchangeably designated. This leads us to say that 

 the difference in the gaits is simply that in the pacer the 

 two legs on the same side move together, while in the 

 trotter the movement is diagonal. By putting a horse 

 in hobbles, he must either pace or break the hobbles, 

 which are so strong as to be almost unbreakable, or be 

 thrown. Hobbles have been permitted in races, but 

 owing to the danger to the driver if any entanglement 

 occurs, they have not become popular except to keep 

 horses that show a tendency to pace at that gait or train 

 them until they can do without them. At its meeting on 

 February 5, 1908, the American Trotting Register Asso- 

 ciation adopted a resolution against the use of hobbles. 

 It was found that a change in the shoeing, such as shoeing 

 very light all round, would encourage a horse to pace; 

 and even the shifting of the bit may accomplish the 

 same purpose. 



After the craze for speed at any cost had subsided some- 

 what, and a different time limit been set for the pacer 

 before he could become standard, the winnings possible 

 for green trotters increased, and with that the purses and 

 colt stakes for trotters were augmented so that trotting as 

 a part of the sport of racing became again more than on a 

 par with pacing. The pacing standard now in force is 

 appended. It should be said that it is identical with the 

 trotting standard except that the word " pacer " is sub- 

 stituted for the word " trotter " and the word " pacing " 



