156 KNOWLEDGE OF GAITS 



running-walker over flat-footed walkers who were going 

 a superb gait. (3f course the '" runner " (as they often 

 call him for short south of Mason and Dixon's line) out- 

 footed the others. You might as well give a j)rize for 

 speed to a horse who won a trotting race at a gallop. 

 The amble is often called a walk. " You have no idea 

 how easy and fast my new horse can walk !" I have fre- 

 quently heard from people whose recent purchase couldn't 

 walk three miles an hour, but would anible a four and a 

 half gait. Perhaps it is no wonder. I have known few 

 horsemen who could analyze the several gaits, though 

 they might recognize them. It was only when Muy- 

 bridge's lens told the story that people found out how a 

 horse moves his feet at a gallop. I think I have met not 

 exceeding half a dozen men in the course of my life who 

 could describe the sequence of a horse's feet at every gait, 

 the intervals at which they reach the ground, and especially 

 what a horse does when he changes gaits or changes lead 

 in the canter or gallop, though I have met thousands 

 who knew all the gaits blindfolded. These are pleasant 

 technical studies, but they are perhaps rather beyond the 

 domain of essential knowledge. AVe do not need to be 

 philological critics in order thoroughly to enjoy "Hamlet.'^ 

 It is not through lack of technical knowledge, but by dis- 

 regard of the thing itself that the refinements of equita- 

 tion have disappeared. 



The day of practical horsemanship has come, and well 

 it is perhaps. No one doubts the superiority for average 

 use of a hack well trained a VAnglaise over the nervous, 

 fidgety, watch-springy creature of the high-school. But 

 is there not a middle point between ignorance and over- 

 training ? A small amount of knowledge of a great art, 

 or intimacy with a small art, are wont to make the pos- 

 sessor " feci liis oats." " Oh, you ])lay the vioHn, do you?'^ 



