132 THE HORSE 



work with comparative kindliness. This last sort, however, do not bear a 

 fast pace, but up to six miles an hour they can perform extremely well. 

 The action of our omnibus horses is remarkably good for all useful purposes, 

 being so safe that one rarely sees a mistake, and when a fall occurs it is 

 almost invariably from a slip and not from a stumble. Much of this 

 improvement in action is due to the absence of the bearing-rein and the 

 general use of the snaffle, leaving the animal at liberty to move without 

 the dreadful restraint which was formerly so indiscriminately imposed. 

 Canadians of stout build are also put to this kind of work. 



THE PHAETON-HORSE, GIGSTER, OR FAST 

 TROTTER 



Between the Norfolk and American trotters, which may be taken 

 as the types of the two kinds of trotting developed in the horse, there is 

 a very considerable difference. I have already described the latter, but it 

 remains for me to say a few words about his English rival. In both there 

 must be a considerable infusion of Eastern blood, not for the purpose of 

 giving pace, but endurance. Many a low-bred animal can trot a mile in 

 pretty fair time, but he cannot keep his pace up ; and indeed when very 

 fast time is to be made, as, for instance, what the Americans call "low in 

 the two-thirties," that is, a mile in little over the two and a half minutes, 

 blood is almost equally in demand for that distance as for a longer, and 

 the distress is nearly as great as in running a mile over the flat at New- 

 market. Norfolk has long been celebrated for her breed of trotters, and 

 these are still in considerable demand for our gigs and phaetons, but their 

 trot is not soft enough to make them desirable hacks, and they are little 

 used for that purpose. The same applies to the American trotters, which 

 are kept to their wagons all over the States. The action of the Norfolk 

 trotter is more showy than that of the American, chiefly because the eye 

 is the sole test applied in this country, no purchaser caring for a faster 

 pace than fourteen or fifteen miles an hour, and most contenting them- 

 selves with twelve, whereas, on the other side of the Atlantic, the time-test 

 is applied in all cases, and the value of a horse is in proportion to what he 

 can do with the stop-watch in the hand of his examiner. The action of 

 our best trotters resembles that of the carriage-horse displayed at page 

 130, but in the smaller animals it is somewhat shorter and sharper. The 

 foot is not thrust forward so mucli as in the American, either before or 

 behind, and hence there is more time lost in each step. In point of 

 appearance and breeding, our gigsters and phaeton-horses are of all kinds, 

 from the pure thoroughbred to the strong but undersized cari'iage-horse. 



