SADDLE HORSES. 147 



this shape, never allowing him to gallop, but often 

 urging him to a fast trot ; and yet in all that time 

 only once did he strike the long, rapid gait of which 

 he was capable, and which he would invariably show 

 when harnessed to a light vehicle. This motion, 

 the extended trot of a really fast horse, is very 

 peculiar, and usually not very comfortable to the 

 rider, the hind legs being well brought up under the 

 animal at every stride, and also, in many cases, going 

 wider than the fore feet, so that the man in the 

 saddle feels as if he might be thrown over his horse's 

 head. And yet some trotters step so smoothly that 

 they can be sat close at a 2.30 gait. 



If your object in riding is mainly that of exercise, 

 almost any sound, active horse that does not stumble 

 will answer the purpose. If his trot be hard, the 

 more exercise you will get, and the better practice 

 you will have. The worst horses to ride are those 

 cold-blooded, nerveless animals, which, tiring after 

 a few miles, let themselves go, and actually tumble 

 down, unless kept up to the mark, rather than take 

 the trouble to remain on their legs. Many coarse- 

 bred cobs are of this character. They wear a decep- 

 tive appearance of strength, have stout limbs and 

 broad chests, but lack nervous energy and courage. 



I remember taking a faint-hearted cob, the property 

 of another, from the town in which I lived to the city 

 where he was to be sold at auction on the following 

 day, a distance of fifteen or twenty miles. Before we 

 had accomplished one quarter of the journey, while 

 cantering down a very slight decline, the cob fell. It 

 is no joke to break the knees of a friend's horse, and 

 the sympathetic reader will easily imagine — as I shall 



