104 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



[Chap. 1. 



140. H'alking Horses. — ^Tlie best gait a horse ever had for every -day use 

 is a irood walk. It is a gait that not one in ten possesses. Colts are not 

 trained fo walk in all tiic Eastern States. Young America wants more speed. 

 Kentucky has more good walking horses than any other State, for there horse- 

 hack traveling' has long been in fashion for men and women over a eountry 

 wliere muddy loads, at some seasons, rendei'ed any other gait impossible, and 

 so horses have been bred for the saddle and trained to a walking gait. This 

 is also the case in all the Western States, and perhaps might have been so in 

 New England, when our grandmothers rode to meeting on a pillion behind our 

 grandfathers, lint one-horse wagons have put horseback riding out of fashion, 

 and nowagood walking horse is more rare than one that can trot a mile in 2.40. 



At the Springfield (Mass.) horse show of ISCO, the writer was one of a 

 committee to award prizes to the two best walking horses. Out of seven- 

 teen entered, the committee found but one which was considered a first-rate 

 Avalker. This was a Morrill mare, which walked five miles an hour with ease. 

 Two others were fair walkers, and the others knew no gait that could be 

 called walking. At the New York State Fair the same state of facts was 

 again developed. A letter from Wisconsin says : "I think horses trained to 

 walk fast would be a greater benefit to farmers in general than fast trotters, 

 as almost all of his work has to be done with a walk. I once knew a man 

 in Massachusetts who, before the railroads were built, kept from two to four 

 teams at work on the road, and never allowed them to trot at all, and nuide 

 the distance in cpiicker time than his neighbors, who made their horses trot 

 at every conveitient place. lie said that when" a horse commenced to walk 

 after a trot, he walked much slower than his common gait if kept on a walk, 

 and thereby lost more than he gained." Will farmers think of this, and pay 

 more attention to walking horses ? 



141. InstruBiciits of TortJirc I'sed by Horsemen. — The following sensible 

 remarks are from the Ii'it^h Farmer''s Gazette. They are quite applicable 

 here : 



" The good old English roadster's style of walk, trot, or canter is too steady 

 for your last j'ouug man ; he thinks it far beneath him to speak a kindly 

 word to his horse, or to control him by an easy signal ; and however quiet 

 the horse may be, he is rarely seen on his back without at least yb;/?' uunec- 

 csr^ary instruments of torture — namely, two spurs with sharp rowels, one 

 whip, and a severe curb bridle. Why should it be tlie universal custom in 

 this country for men armed with these cruel instruments of torture to ride 

 quiet, docile horses, and often punish them for a fanciful fault which they 

 tiiemselves bring about by their own want of experience and knowledge of 

 the horse's nature ? 



" If a man has not the ability to handle a horse lightly, and at the same 

 time keep his balance in the saddle, he has no business to ride one of value 

 and high courage. It would be better for the horse and safer for the jnan 

 to keep his feet on terra firma. 



"The more a horse's mouth is iised to a severe bit, the less he will care 



