THE AMERICAN SADDLE HORSE. 193 



land has no saddle horses, and never can have any till she secures 

 American blood and adopts American methods. The shortening 

 of the stirrups and the swinging up and down like a tilt-hammer 

 is not, with our English friends, a matter of choice, but a neces- 

 sity to avoid being jolted to death. Their very silly imitators, 

 on this side, think they can't afford to be out of the fashion, be- 

 cause "it's English, you know." For safety, true gentility, and 

 comfort the military seat is the only seat, and if you have a 

 horse upon which you can't keep that seat without punishment, 

 he is no saddle horse. If your doctor tells you that your liver 

 needs shaking up, mount an English trotting horse, but if you 

 ride for pleasure and fresh air, get a horse that is bred and 

 trained to the saddle gaits. There is just as much difference be- 

 tween the two horses as the difference between a springless wagon 

 on a cobble-stone pavement and a richly upholstered coach on 

 the asphalt. 



The American Saddle Horse has an origin as well as a history. 

 His origin dates back thousands of years, and his history has 

 been preserved in art and in letters since the beginning of the 

 Christian era. For centuries he was the fashionable horse in 

 England, and the only horse ridden by the nobility and gentry. 

 Away back in the reign of Elizabeth it was not an uncommon 

 thing to use hopples to teach and compel trotters to pace, just 

 as in our day hopples are often used to teach and compel pacers 

 to trot. In the early settlement of the American colonies pacers 

 were far more numerous than trotters, and this continued to be 

 the case till after the War of the Revolution. The great influx 

 of running blood after that period practically banished the pacer 

 to the western frontiers, where a remnant has been preserved for 

 the uses of the saddle; and on account of his great speed and 

 gameness he has again returned to popular favor in our own day. 



The walk and the canter, or short gallop, are gaits that are 

 common to all breeds and varieties of horses, but what are known 

 as "the saddle gaits" are derived wholly from the pace and are 

 therefore considered modifications or variations of the pace. In 

 regions of country where the saddle horse is bred and developed 

 these gaits are well known among horsemen and riders as the 

 rack (single-footing), the running-walk, and the fox-trot. These 

 gaits are not easily described so as to be understood without an 

 example before the eye. The rack is the most easily explained 

 so as to be comprehended, and it is sometimes called the slow 



