ACTION. 



35 



consequence, so bad a hack that he had to be led to cover. 

 I have noticed that horses with rather low shoulders, but 

 fine at the point and rather light in the neck, are generally 

 pleasant and speedy gallopers. Fine-topped ones with high 

 large shoulders are often high actioned and by no means 

 fast or pleasant conveyances. The length of pace in no 

 way depends on the height of the horse. Champion, a well- 

 known Arab racer, when in training at Meerut, North-West 

 Provinces of India, covered twenty-one feet at each stride. 



The late Captain Roger D. Upton, of the 9th Lancers, in 

 his work of Newmarket and Arabia calls attention to the 

 ability of the Arabian to play with his fore feet even when 

 at a hand-gallop. He further makes the following remarks, 

 which are apj'opos to the unusual liberty of shoulder 

 possessed by these true pure-bred horses of the pathless 

 desert : '' Most must have noticed when riding on the grass 

 by the side of roads, how constantly their horses are putting 

 their feet into grips, or on the edge of them, which have 

 been cut to carry off the water, and which, it would appear, 

 they are incapable of avoiding, jerking and shaking their 

 limbs, and making it unpleasant for their riders. I have 

 known Arabs, on the contrary, either at a canter or a trot, 

 avoid these grips and obstacles by a most nimble manage- 

 ment of their legs, either by extending one shoulder and leg 

 beyond the grip, or putting one foot neatly down before 

 concluding the usual length of pace." Whyte Melville 

 termed this handi7iess with the feet "patting butter- 

 flies." I have, on more than one occasion, noticed the 

 eager Arab pig-sticker, when brought up alongside the 

 mighty boar at racing speed, lay his ears back, and go open- 

 mouthed at "the father of tusks,"' and strike smartly at his 

 " bow back " right from the shoulder as a passing reminder. 



Though, perhaps, not the most elegant, the firmest seated 

 riders in the world are the Australian stockmen, their horses 



