VARIOUS GAITS 309 



a jog; when fast, a flying trot. They only differ in degree ; 

 but on the flying trot the horse is propelled so vigorously 

 that between steps he is sometimes in the air, while in the 

 jog and slow trot one set of feet is always oh the ground. 

 The feel of the saddle is a bump up and down, to avoid 

 which on a five-mile trot and upwards one rises to each 

 alternate step. On a jog you cannot rise ; to a very rapid 

 trot one need not always do so. Owing to a difference in 

 conformation or strength of the hind-legs, some horses are 

 easier when you rise to one rather than the other leg. 



5. The pace, which is a fast amble. When at speed 

 at a pace, as in the flying trot, the horse is often in the 

 air between steps. The feel of the saddle is sometimes a 

 bump, sometimes a sw^ay from side to side, differing in 

 individuals. 



6. The rack, which is a gait half-way between the trot 

 and pace. Here the feet follow each other at half in- 

 tervals, each one coming down separately. In the trot 

 and pace the hoof -beats sound '' one, two ! one, two !" In 

 the rack they sound " one, two, three, four ! one, two, 

 three, four T' in the same length of time — four beats in- 

 stead of two for the same speed, each hind-foot following 

 its fore-foot at a half interval, instead of coming down 

 wath it. The saddle is perfectly quiet under you ; the gait 

 is the very poetry of comfort. Speed, six to fifteen miles 

 an hour ; or, as a rarity, a three-minute gait. 



7. The canter is an irregular gait, by most people de- 

 scribed as a slow gallop ; but it has, mechanically speak- 

 ing, not much in common with the latter gait. An Eng- 

 lishman will describe his thorough-bred as cantering twelve 

 miles an hour, but he is really going a three-beat, or hand- 

 gallop. If you call a five or six mile gait a canter you 

 cannot call a twelve-mile gait a canter, for the progression 

 of the animal is mechanicallj^ different. I am not seeking 



