266 Gait of the American Trotter and Pacer 



distance of one pair must not differ materially from the average dis- 

 tance of the other pair. 



This regularity of motion, due to the equal distance between the 

 two pairs of correlated feet, is readily seen when the camera arrests its 

 continuity; but since we cannot always bring into use this marvelous 

 invention and since the eye cannot follow the motion with any accuracy, 

 we must call to our assistance our sense of hearing. The ear will 

 easily detect a lack of rhythm in the uniform fall of the feet and their 

 concussion with the ground. Long before such an event, however, the 

 gait may have been in disorder through this inequality of the correlated 

 distances, but when the ear is offended it is time that we look into the 

 matter as in the next chapter. 



II. SINGLE-FOOTING AN ALARM OF A DISORDERED BALANCE 



The peculiar consecutive fall of the four feet, so pleasing to the 

 ear of the rider, but so extremely irritating to a driver, and known very 

 properly as "single-footing," is often the result of a pacing tendency 

 in the trotter, but more often the outcome of a bad adjustment of foot 

 and shoe. I am always opposed to the forcing methods, by which is 

 meant the continued training and driving in the face of such an indi- 

 cation of a bad balance. In the beginning an appeal was made for sane 

 and sensible principles in the development of the standard horse. Many 

 trainers do not recognize the first symptoms of this mixed gait and go 

 on training all the harder to eradicate it. Single-footing, like hopping 

 or any interference or any concussion or sliding on the ground in 

 fact, any indication that the locomotion of the horse is impeded, in any 

 manner by some fault of the horse or by some error of his lord and 

 master should at once arrest all further development until a clear idea 

 of the commotion or disturbance can be had. 



The single-foot as it appears now and then in the trotter and pacer 

 is not the genuine article, but is a sufficient approach to it to cause ex- 

 treme annoyance. The real single- foot appears in Fig. 197, the positions 

 being taken from the book that originated from the photographic ex- 

 periments at the once famous Palo Alto Farm. This gait may be de~ 



