ago 1 HE Book of the Horse. 



THE ACTION OF WALKING AND TROTTING. 



The action of trotting squarely is distinctly diagonal, the off fore and the off hind foot 

 following each other. It has always, and correctly, been taken for granted that the action of 

 walking is the same, and is thus illustrated in the portrait of a very fine walker at page 193. 



On consideration, every horseman will remember that the actions of the two paces, walking 

 and trotting, glide so naturally from one into the other, without that distinct change which 

 takes place when a horse either rises from a walk into a canter or subsides from a canter to a 

 walk, that feeling and hearing alone suffice to settle the question, without the use of eyesight. 

 Major Dwyer treats the question with his usual mathematical exactness in the following pas- 

 sages, in which he discusses it in reference to another question, viz., the effect of the rider's 

 weight on the equilibrium of a horse at different paces. 



" In walking and trotting, the horse moves its diagonal legs simultaneously — that is, the 

 off fore and the near hind leg move together, and alternate in this action with the near fore 

 and off hind ones ; so that while one pair is being moved forward the other sustains the weight 

 of the animal. 



" In cantering and galloping (slowly), the two legs at the same side are advanced simul- 

 taneously, the other two remaining behind. But the two diagonal legs of every pair are not 

 set down simultaneously. One hears distinctly four beats in the case of walking and trotting, 

 and two, three, or four in cantering or galloping, according as the horse's weight is adjusted 

 to the latter movement. Of the two legs acting in concert, the fore one is lifted and set down 

 somewhat sooner than the hind one ; were not this the case, a horse could never tread in his 

 own hoof-marks, as he usually does in the trot. 



" In very rapid trotting, the animal is off the ground with all four legs for an instant. 



"The veterinary surgeon of the famous Austrian stud at Trakenen has observed that the 

 near hind-leg and the off fore-leg of most horses are stronger than the other two, and he attributes 

 to this cause the fact that horses naturally prefer to lead with the near leg in cantering 

 and galloping, the weight being then supported by the two strongest limbs, the near hind and 

 off fore leg. For the same reason he asserts that spavin occurs more frequently on the off 

 than the near side ; and that horses in wheeling through restiveness always do so to the left, 

 on the near hind-leg." 



These explanations show why trotting is the safest pace for a sound-footed horse trotting 

 within his powers, for then he is always supported diagonally on, two legs, and two legs are 

 alternately coming to his support. For the same reason, trotting is a dangerous fast pace 

 when one leg or foot is painfully unsound ; so, too, walking is dangerous when a young or 

 tired horse is permitted to take a long, lounging, slovenly stride. 



THE CANTER. 



The canter proper is the first stage before galloping, which is performed with the same 

 action, except at the utmost rate of speed. Then a well-bred horse seems in his gallop to 

 cover the ground by a series of bounds. 



The canter is performed on the haunches, the fore-legs seeming to act chiefly as props, 

 and to take very little share in the work of propulsion, if so grand a phrase may be pardoned. 



A fine cantering hack moves forward in a scries of graceful curves, in the form illustrated 



