74 PECULIAEITY OF ACTION. 



shoulders, back ribs, hips and haunches ; otherwise, all 

 else should be similar. 



ACTION. 



Unless the horse gets his hind legs well under him, 

 and appears almost to balance himself on them as he 

 walks, lifting his hind feet rather high, I should not 

 consider it desirable. 



In the gallop the style of going in the steeplechase 

 horse should differ from that in the racehorse entirely. 

 The former should seem to be a dashing savage goer, 

 bending his knees well : while the latter should go 

 gliding along with a straight reach as smoothly and 

 calmly as a cutter yacht through the water. 



FUKTHER QUALIFICATIONS. 



A quick eye, a determined spirit, and great activity 

 are essentially necessary in the steeplechaser, — i.e. he 

 should have a foot always to spare, and a quick eye to 

 direct it in every emergency, without winch he will 

 never be safe to ride or back. 



These are the great attributes of the steeplechase 

 horse, and very frequently do they render a very bad 

 racehorse a fair performer over a country. Pace and 

 action alone will never make a steeplechase horse, and 

 a coward should always be discarded ; for if the horse 

 be taking every opportunity of cutting it, he will 

 assuredly succeed in either doing so, falling, or being 

 cleverly defeated. Such brutes are unworthy of the 

 name of steeplechasers, and the sooner they be con- 



