Record of the Tracks on the Ground 81 



average distance from one pair of legs to the other, or from one side 

 to the other, only 4.82 ft., while Lou Dillon shows 6.36 ft. This may 

 be explained by the difference in elevation and rapidity of action. 

 While the trotting mare has a sweeping and comparatively high action, 

 with special development of hock movement, the pacing mare has a 

 more rapid and lower action. The greater stride of Alone (19.72 ft.) 

 than that of Lou Dillon (19.24 ft.) should really show the greater dis- 

 tance between pairs of legs, if the action were the same. In my opinion 

 the action of the trotting mare is more favorable to a continued effort 

 at high speed than* that of the pacing mare. 



With Lou Dillon her fore feet were straight in direction while at 

 rest, and her hind toed out slightly. The hind while in motion spread 

 apart somewhat, but the crossing over of fore could not be suspected 

 from their position at rest. She is, however, an exception or a freak 

 in gait. With Alone we come nearer to Roberge's rule. Her hind 

 toed in perceptibly, while of her fore the near was more straight than 

 the off when pointing at rest. In the subsequent table, Fig. 62, we 

 may see this by the results ; but it should be remembered that there was 

 a slight swerve to left, and this evidently caused the pointing out of 

 near fore, as well as produced a straight direction or pointing of off 

 fore. 



All this pointing may be natural or it may be due to faulty paring 

 of hoof or to careless shoeing. To a certain extent faulty pointing 

 may be corrected by paring and shoeing combined, as we shall see later. 



As in Fig. 47, so in the case of this pacing mare, measurements 

 were taken- by means of the track gauge with reference to a median 

 line, or a string stretched in the middle between sulky wheel tracks 

 and running parallel to these. This line is staked out carefully by 

 means of surveyor's pins and must follow any little deviation to right 

 or left with the wheel tracks. As a condition for such measurements 

 it is required that the horse be driven as straight as possible, but since 

 an absolutely straight line is seldom obtained, we can depend on fairly 

 accurate results even if there are slight curves to right and left. The 

 curves really compensate each other, and if the trial contains one of 

 each of about the same magnitude one will offset the other in the 



