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Amongst the Romans, riding-masters were styled equimies; and 

 Varro says, that a Horse intended for the saddle, was sent to one of 

 these, in order to form his paces, and to teach him to deal his feet 

 loftily. These masters, as at present, hoth disciplined Horses and 

 taught the art of riding; and it appears, that amongst the ancients, the 

 military manege or artificial paces, Avere in general use, and applied to 

 saddle Horses of almost every description. 



The Grecian masters always set the Horse off to the left, preferring 

 that side; and worked their Horses in circles, in order to render them 

 supple and ready to turn to either side. Or worked them in mceanders, 

 en serpentant, in waving or serpentine lines. 



In forming the paces, if the colt had not naturally a proud and lofty 

 action, like the Spanish or Persian Horses, wooden rollers and weights 

 were bound to their pastern joints, which gave them the habit of lifting 

 up their feet. This method also was practised in teaching them the 

 amhuhitura, or amble, perhaps universally the common travelling pace 

 of the Romans. The Siievi taught their Horses to amble by the 

 means of cords tied to their legs, which so controlled their steps, as to 

 make them move the two legs of the same side at once, the other two 

 following, which motions constitute the amble. 



That natural and most excellent pace the trot, seems to have been 

 very little prized, or attended to by the ancients, and was indeed by 

 the Romans held in a sort of contempt or aversion, as is demonstrated 

 by the terms which served to describe it. A trotting Horse was called 

 by them, succussaior or shaker, and sometimes cruciator and tormentor, 

 which last terms, it may be presumed, Avere applied specially to those 

 which, in these days, we dignify with the expressive appellation oi bone- 

 setters. 



Those nags which, either from nature or art, dealt their steps in 

 time and measure, with a certain spring and suddenness of motion, 

 lifting their feet alternately aloft, suspending them momentarily in the 

 air, and then striking in equal cadence against the ground ; in brief. 

 Horses having a cadenced pace, were styled metaphorically, by those 

 scientilic, perhaps pedantic horsemen, guttonarii and colatorii, or droppers 

 and strainers, irom a somewhat far fetched metaphor, as it may be 



thought. 



