"PEA VINE" 155 



running- walker, and did the bulk of the distance at this 

 gait. This is one of the very best records of extreme dis- 

 tance ridden on the books meaning a course of thousands 

 rather than hundreds of miles. No comparison of endur- 

 ance required can well be instituted between this perform- 

 ance and the heretofore quoted ride of three hundred 

 miles in three consecutive nights, repeated weekly for six 

 months and over, though the latter strikes me as by far 

 the greater feat ; for the average per day is nearly forty- 

 three miles for an equal or longer period, and the exer- 

 tion of the long night rides vastly more taxing. 



My daughters for years rode a noble little thorough-bred 

 Kentucky saddle-horse, handsome as a picture and easy 

 as a cradle, who could walk flat-footed four miles and 

 a half in sixty minutes ; could running- walk five and a 

 half, rack seven, single-foot up to twelve, and in harness 

 or under saddle trot a 'forty-gait as square as any horse 

 ever shod. This does not count his canter and gallop, 

 manners, or divers other accomplishments. Each gait was 

 so distinct that you could call it out by a word or a turn 

 of the bridle- wrist, and tell it from the others with your 

 eyes shut. "Was " Pea Vine " not a better park hack than 

 if he were confined to the plain walk, trot, and canter? 

 And yet most of our Eastern fashionables would answer 

 nay, and on general principles our above -cited Briton 

 would sneer at the idea of riding "artificial" gaits, though 

 he has, without knowing it, been felicitating himself on 

 his nag's possessing such a gait. I must, however, say 

 that I think a Briton would be more open to conviction 

 by a proper demonstration than some of our home imi- 

 tators of his methods. 



It is odd how obtuse even an old horseman can be who 

 has not studied these gaits. I have seen judges at horse- 

 shows and prize competitions give a walking prize to a 



