Changing Lead in Motion. 125 



silken thread on the bit will canter a five-mile 



gait. 



XXXVIII. 



You have probably noticed that Nelly some- 

 times canters with one shoulder forward and 

 sometimes with the other. Almost all sound 

 horses will change lead of their own accord, but 

 not knowing why. When a horse shies at a 

 strange object, or hops over anything in his path, 

 or gets on new ground, or changes direction, he 

 will often do this. If a horse does not frequently 

 change, it is apt to be on account of an unsound 

 foot, hough, or shoulder, which makes painful or 

 difficult the lead he avoids. But occasionally a 

 sound horse will always lead with the same leg, 

 until taught to change. For a lady the canter is 

 generally easier with the right shoulder leading, 

 and some horses are much easier with one than 

 the other lead. In fact, on the trot, many horses 

 are easier when you rise with the off than when 

 you rise with the near foot, or vice versa; and 

 some writers have said that a horse leads with 

 one or other foot in trotting. But as the trot 

 should be a square and even gait, the peculiarity 

 in question is owing to excess of muscular action 

 in one leg and not to anything approaching the 

 lead in the canter or the gallop. 



It is possible to teach a horse to start with 

 either or to change lead in the canter without 



