ANTIQUITY AND HISTORY OF THE PACING HORSE. 101 



bling was found out for the general ease of the whole world, as long as there is 

 either pleasure, commerce or trade amongst the people. Now for the manner 

 of the motion and the difference betwixt it and trotting. It cannot be described 

 more plainly than I have set down in my former treatise; which is that it is the 

 taking up of both legs together upon one side and so carrying them smoothly 

 along to set them down upon the ground even together, and in that motion he 

 must lift and wind up his fore foot somewhat high from the ground, but his 

 hinder foot he must no more than take from the ground, as it were, sweep it 

 close to the earth. Now, by taking up both his legs together on one side, I 

 mean he must take up his right fore foot and his right hinder foot. For, as in 

 the contrary pace, when a horse trots he takes up his feet crosswise, as the 

 left hinder foot and the right fore foot, etc." 



Mr. Markham, in his edition of 1607, then goes on in six or 

 eight chapters acknowledging that many foals pace naturally, 

 and to show how the foal may be trained to pace. His methods 

 are very cruel, in many cases, and very crude throughout; but it 

 clearly demonstrates the fact that in the sixteenth century the 

 pace was a very general gait among English horses. In these 

 chapters we find the toe weight first introduced as well as the 

 trammels or hopples. The most striking fact brought out in 

 these chapters is the discovery that more than three hundred 

 years ago Englishmen were using the same devices to convert 

 trotters into pacers that we are now using to convert pacers into 

 trotters. He takes notice that Mr. Blundeville had advised those 

 who wished to breed amblers to select a Spanish jennet or an 

 Irish Hobbie, and objects to the former on the grounds that their 

 paces are weak and uncertain. From this I conclude that the 

 gait of the jennet, whatever it might have been, was not a habit 

 of action fixed in the breed, and that its transmission was doubt- 

 ful. 



Mr. Markham then goes on further to explain the mechanism 

 of the trot and the pace and incidentally introduces the rack or 

 single-foot action, which, I think, is the first time I have found 

 it in any English writer. He says: 



" The nearer a horse taketh his limbs from the ground, the opener and evener 

 and the shorter he treadeth, the better will be his pace, and the contrary 

 declares much imperfection. If you buy a horse for pleasure the amble is the 

 best, in which you observe that he moves both his legs on one side togethe- 

 neat with complete deliberation, for if he treads too short he is apt to stumble, 

 if too large to cut and if shuffling or rowling he does it slovenly, and besides 

 rids no ground. If your horse be designed for hunting, a racking pace is most 

 expedient, which little differs from the amble, only is more active and nimble, 

 whereby the horse observes due motion, but you must not force him too eagerly, 



