HORSES NATURALLY TROT BY CHOICE. 137 



that however great a cripple a horse may be, he can 

 keep on his legs in a fast pace, for even when a horse 

 breaks down in running he seldom falls. They also 

 prove that even violent exertion can be borne by a 

 weak limb (when continued but less violent) exercise 

 could not ; for if many race -horses that are running 

 as cripples were to get a long day's hunting, they 

 would not come out of the stable again for a month 

 or perhaps a season. A very few minutes' galloping 

 is all the generality of race-horses get, and then, if 

 requisite, in bandages: even the longest sweat is 

 soon over. 



It may be said, in opposition to my opinion that a 

 continued canter fatigues more than a continued 

 trot, that many horses, if too lame to trot, will 

 canter. This in no shape proves it to be the easiest 

 pace for a sound horse. The lame one does it for 

 two reasons : by doing so, if he is lame on one leg or 

 foot, he can use it so as not to get its proportion of 

 the weight of his body ; and secondly, if lame on both 

 legs or feet, he cannot step out with them sufficiently 

 to go the pace we want him, so he is forced to gallop : 

 but so soon as he gets warm, he will be found to 

 begin to trot. Put a lame horse in a coach, and go 

 off six miles an hour, he will trot ; but as coaches 

 now-a-days must go off at a fast pace at once, the 

 cripples know this and start off in a gallop. Horses, 

 except from habit, hardly ever willingly canter, if the 

 pace they are asked to go is only such as they can 

 trot with perfect ease, say seven miles an hour. Let 

 a man ride one horse and lead another at such a 

 pace, the led horse would not attempt to canter : put 

 him into a canter, and he would very shortly return 

 to the trot. 



