COLOR. Ill 



pended, the reach of the stride is shortened. In nine cases 

 out of ten there is an entire absence of corresponding action 

 in the hind legs, which gives these limbs the appearance of 

 belonorins to another horse. This extravagant indication of 

 sustained animation is very fetching, and possibly desirable 

 as a fitting accompaniment to a well appointed calling car- 

 riage or the park trap, but — and it is a very serious " but " — 

 this beautiful action is largely an artificial development, ob- 

 tained by weighting the feet or schooling the horse over corn- 

 stalks, etc. When once the animal has become accustomed to 

 such an exaggerated form of locomotion the conditions that 

 make it excusable are removed and the horse is placed on a 

 comparatively level road. It may be argued that as this high 

 action is confined to horses which are only required to do 

 about half the work they are capable of performing, the use- 

 less expenditure of force does no harm and unquestionably 

 looks " smart." The defence of this senseless fashion is 

 weak only in one spot, but in that lies the absolute destruc- 

 tion of the argument in its defence. As these high, flashy 

 actioned steeds are generally used by owners in large cities, 

 the poor animals are punished at every step by the concus- 

 sion occasioned by the heavy pounding on the non-elastic 

 pavements. A proof of this may be seen in the scarcity of 

 sound-leesfed, hiQ:h-actioned horses that have had more than 

 a year or so of service over the cobblestones. The excess- 

 ive development of high action, if considered seriously, can 

 only be deemed a cruel and expensive artificial production 

 of fashion. 



COLOR. 



The old superstitious preference for some combinations 



