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do what the Americans call a "square trot'' of fourteen miles an hour. Beyond fourteen 

 miles an hour it becomes racing pace, only expected from sporting publicans or American 

 millionaires displaying their really wonderful carriages and trotters. The class of young gentle- 

 men who in England would indulge in a well-appointed mail- phaeton or four-in-hand would 

 in the United States have one or more 2.40 horses, that is, horses that can trot a mile in 

 two minutes and forty seconds. 



Pace is not the principal point in a gentleman's horse except it may be in a cover hack 

 or railway station trapper. A horse or pony that can trot eight miles an hour in good form, 

 bending his knees, and carrying himself like "a gentlemen," will fetch more money than a 

 vulgar brute with no other merit than extraordinary speed. 



Pages might be employed, without giving any distinct ideas, in trying to describe what 

 good trotting should be ; but it is a subject that, after all, must be studied from the live 

 animal. The trotting action that is admirable in harness, combining a fast pace with a 

 sprightly or a grand style, may be perfectly detestable under saddle ; a degree of high, even 

 rough, extravagant action, may be accepted and much admired in harness, which under 

 saddle would wear the rider to death and make him look ridiculous. So, too, a large number 

 of horses perform with perfect safety, and even brilliantly, in harness, which could not carry 

 even a boy in saddle ; because all horses intended for riding as well as driving must not 

 only have riding " shoulders " with good legs and feet, but the proper riding action, which, as 

 before observed, will soon be spoiled if put to draw heavy weights ; and they should bridle 

 well, which no horse can do which has not a head joined to his neck in the proper way. 



A horse may have extravagant knee-action, and yet not be safe to ride. Safety depends 

 not only in lifting each fore-foot fairly up, but in the way it is put down. It is because it 

 is comparatively more easy to accustom young horses to a "square trot" in harness than in 

 saddle, that light harness-work unquestionably improves them as hacks. 



It is, however, much easier to find an ordinary useful harness-horse than an ordinary useful 

 and safe riding-horse, for one important reason, amongst several, i.e., good shoulders are rare 

 in all horses, and still more in ponies. Without good sloping shoulders, no horse can be per- 

 fectly safe in saddle, but one with rather straight shoulders, low withers, and ribs so framed 

 that a crupper is indispensable if the saddle is to be kept in its place, may run well, look 

 well, and never tumble while properly driven in harness. 



There is, however, one quality common to all good horses, which is much more essential 

 in harness than in saddle, that is courage — the courage that will keep him trotting all day 

 long up to the bit and into the collar without whipping. A harness-horse that requires really 

 whipping is only fit for a four-wheeled cab or a hired fly. A horseman can make a saddle- 

 horse go up to the bit, and increase his pace without any visible demonstration, by a squeeze 

 of the legs, or a more or less sharp touch with the spur ; a really good horseman can, as it 

 were, mesmerise the animal he is riding. Some of the very best hacks are inclined to be 

 lazy at starting on the road ; besides, a hack has alternations of walking, trotting, and canter- 

 ing. A harness-horse has to trot for hour after hour. High courage and fine action will 

 atone for a multitude of shortcomings and defects in harness ; but it must never be forgotten 

 that a horse to draw a heavy carriage must have weight and power, good back and loins, 

 and powerful hocks and thighs. 



It takes at least six months to break an average pair of well-bred horses, or a single 

 brougham-horse, fresh from the country, to town use, although many go well in six weeks. 

 A horse that has once kicked or lain down in harness is never safe. Some horses will only 



