72 HORSEMANSHIP. 



if well done : we leave " under the thirties '' to our go-ahead 

 transatlantic cousins. 



The Canter. 



From the trot the horse naturally springs into the canter, 

 that is if the rider knows how to prepare him for it. I must 

 here refer the reader to the chapter on Action, in which this 

 armchair pace is fully described. How often do we see a 

 " muff" endeavouring to put his horse from a trot into a 

 canter. First a dig in the ribs with one heel, to be followed 

 by a jam from both — klk ! klk ! klk ! a chuck with one, then 

 with both bits at the poor brute's mouth, and an inviting 

 rise in the stirrups. The trot becomes a faster and more 

 unconnected trot, still no canter, the pace degenerating into 

 a sort of a go-as-you-please indescribable double-shuffle — a 

 cross breed between the gait of a galloping cow, the rack of 

 a Jerusalem jackass, and the " flippant shtep" of an Irish 

 pig with a lead to its hind leg. Another fumble with the 

 reins, more back-heeling, spiced with a Uttle red-hot profanity 

 perhaps, and a *' rib-binder " from the whip, drive the quad- 

 ruped into a sprawling gallop, wrong leg leading, the reins 

 are here, there and everywhere, bunched up all of a tangle, 

 and the Mr. Washball, to save a runaway or a cropper, has 

 to pull up as best he can. 



The Canter is an artificial pace, during which, in a repe- 

 tition of short bounds, the forehand rises first and higher 

 than the quarters. Though the easiest of all to the 

 rider, it is the most tiring and trying to the horse. The 

 horse being light in hand and well balanced — having pre- 

 viously, when in the hands of the breaker, been tutored in 

 Bending, Reining-in, and in obeying the pressure of the leg 

 — can be made to strike a canter from the halt, walk, or 



