164 Gait of tJie American Trotter and Pacer 



will make a horse badly gaited and often produce faults hard to 

 eradicate. 



As to the lateral extensions (Fig. 133) it may be noted that the 

 off hind did not have a good direction. In fact, it was found later 

 that it had the tendency to overreach and, as is so often the case, 

 the direction changed from outside to inside of off fore. Such cases 

 as this one cannot be mended by a few shoeings. Owners too often 

 expect the shoer to do wonders when, piled up in the mechanism of 

 the horse, there lie the various cross-purposes of all sorts of previous 

 changes, which one definite plan continued for a long period alone 

 can eradicate. 



In considering the effects of toe-weights we have, therefore, seen 

 that in a general way they give direction to the fore feet and increase 

 their action and, to some degree, their forward extension ; but 

 their influence is also felt by the hind feet and these are drawn for- 

 ward rather than upward so that their extension is also affected. That 

 is to say, unless shoes are used which by their shape increase the ele- 

 vation of hind action, the hind forward extension is visibly increased 

 by the use of toe-weights on the fore feet. We may therefore have 

 the spectacle, so often observed, of a horse cleaving the air with splendid 

 but excessive front action followed by "daisy-cutting" hind action, but 

 hind action that gets under rather to excess. If we were to judge 

 efficiency solely by speed, then the trotter with long toes, low heels, 

 three ounce toe-weights on each fore, heavy elbow boots, a sky-scrap- 

 ing nose on a head stiffly propped up by an unyielding checking device 

 and with light plates on hind feet, and a mere shuffle for action behind, 

 but withal able to trot in 2 107, or better, would be a horse of almost 

 ideal perfection. "There you are, gentlemen, can you beat that? 

 Otherwise don't criticise!" the trainer will probably say; and with 

 mere speed as a test, or as a standard to judge by, the gentlemen ad- 

 dressed will bow their heads in silence or raise their eyes in wonder- 

 ment, as their individual feelings may direct. 



With good will toward all, but especially with a view toward 

 raising the real efficiency of the trotter and the pacer by making of 

 them animals with a free and easy motion and with a well proportioned 



