The Park Canter. 291 



by the woodcut of the Marquis of Londonderry at page 259 (copied from a series ot equestrian 

 portraits publislied between 1830 and 1840). The canter of Count D'Orsay's fierce hack, 

 which seems to be standing on one leg (page 257), is rather in the style of display than of 

 the luxury of the middle-aged dandy marquis. A view of the Achilles monument would 

 have been more suggestive of the man and the horse than the wild mountain scenery which 

 forms the background. 



To canter properly the park hack must be collected, brought almost to a standstill and 

 on his haunches with the curb rein, touched with the heel or whip on the side meant to lead, 

 and drawn by the rein on the opposite side until the rider can see his horse's eye. Once 

 started, the curb reins only must be used, with a slight give-and-take feeling, the rider balancing 

 himself to the time of the horse's movement. But the hand on the hip would scarcely be 

 considered "good form" at any time since manliness superseded the effeminate affectation of 

 the dandies of King William IV. 's time. 



It is difficult to find a horse that can canter pleasantly and slowly in a grand and graceful 

 style, because strength is required in the loins, hocks, and thighs, to perform a pace which 

 throws so much strain on those muscles and tendons ; and the combination of strength with 

 soft action is rare. 



Ladies' horses are always required to lead with the off fore-leg, and this undue strain on 

 one pair of limbs generally produces lameness or ossification in the joints of the near hind- 

 leg. Indeed, there are few horses that have been constantly cantered by ladies that are not 

 in some degree damaged in the overworked sinews and joints. 



Sound horses are easily taught to lead with either fore-leg. But if a horse otherwise 

 docile obstinately declines to lead with either fore-leg, it will generally be found that the leg 

 or foot he objects to use is unsound. 



Cantering is the pace for park or country use on soft ground. No park hack is worthy 

 of the name that will not, on slight indication, canter at the rate of six miles an hour (any 

 well-bred screw can gallop), springing into the canter from a walk at the rider's first indication. 



To canter straightforward at a moderate pace is the easiest of all horse exercise for a novice. 

 The best practice for a pupil is to canter in small circles to the right and to the left, and in a 

 figure of eight on a horse trained to change his leg from right to left, and vice versa, without 

 indication from the rider. 



In England cantering is considered an effeminate pace, only to be used occasionally ; but 

 the best horsemen in performing long distances alternately walk, trot, and canter, thus resting 

 all the legs of their hack, and cover very great distances without distressing him. 



It is not needful to dilate at any great length on a pace so familiar, but the young horseman 

 should particularly bear in mind that the slow or collected canter in which a handsome hack 

 makes the greatest display is a pace that tries a horse much more than a trot or hand-gallop 

 at the rate of eight or nine miles an hour, for the collected canter is a strictly artificial pace, 

 produced by gentle " urging " against the delicate restraint of the curb ; the more collected, 

 that is, slow, the greater the weight thrown on the horse's hind-quarters. Ladies, with the 

 cruelty of ignorance, often abuse pets which would suffer less from a daily " terrific " gallop 

 over sound turf, than from a couple of hour's slow cantering up and down Rotten Row. 



For the same reason, although a fresh horse should not be allowed to break and shift 

 from a trot to a canter and from a canter to a trot, it is absolutely cruel to hold a horse down 

 to the same fast pace on a long journey. A horse, if ridden by a heavy man, or by one who 

 does not "rise in good time,'-" will break into a canter in order to relieve the strain on the 



