30 The Racker. 



woods and fields on either side, and rarely meet a 

 stretch where you can start into a swinging trot. 

 But a horse will fall from a walk into a rack, or 

 vice versa^ with the greatest of ease to himself 

 and rider, and if the stretch is but a hundred 

 yards will gain some distance in that short bit of 

 ground. If you have a fifty mile ride over good 

 roads in comfortable weather, perhaps a smart 

 trot, if easy, of course alternating with the walk, 

 is as good a single gait as you can ride. But you 

 need to trot or canter a goodly stretch, not to 

 shorten rein at every dozen rods, for the transi- 

 tion from a walk to either of these gaits or back 

 again, though slight, is still an exertion; while 

 from the walk to the rack and back the change is 

 so imperceptible that one is made conscious of 

 it only by the patter of the horse's feet. Here 

 again, the country's need, roads, and climate have 

 bred a most acceptable gait. But it has made 

 the Southerner forget what an inspiriting thing a 

 swinging twelve mile trot can be along a smooth 

 and pretty road ; and you cannot give away a 

 trotting horse for use in the saddle south of 

 Mason and Dixon. The rack soon grows into 

 the single-foot, which only differs from it in be- 

 ing faster, and the latter is substituted for the 

 trot. To go a six or eight mile gait, holding a 

 full glass of water in the hand, and not to spill a 

 drop, is the test of perfection in the racker. And 



