Antiquity and Value of the Pacing Gait. 



(From writings of John H. Wallace, formerly editor of Wallace's Trotting Register Co.) 



" The first distinctive feature and undoubted evidence we have of the 

 pacing habit of action in the horse is about 2,350 years old. At that time 

 Greek art had attained its highest excellence, and the Parthenon was erected on 

 . the Acropolis of Athens. The sculpture of that magnificent temple came from 

 the hands of the great Phidias and his scholars. On its Irieze of Pentelic 

 marble, processions were delineated, and among them many horsemen and 

 chariots. Some of these horses are represented in the pacing action, advancing 

 the two limbs on the same side at the same time, while others are trotting and 

 galloping. Under the devastations of war this great temple was destroyed, 

 and about the beginning of this century, Lord Elgin brought to England 

 many specimens of sculpture from its ruins, and especially portions of the 

 famous frieze showing the horses. This collection was purchased by the 

 government at an enormous cost, and is known throughout the world as the 

 "Elgin Marbles." It was deposited in the British Museum about the begin- 

 ning of this century, where we have studied the action of the horses with great 

 interest and care. 



"During the centuries that the Romans had possession of Britain they had 

 horses of different breeds or varieties that were designated bynames indicating 

 the particular use to which each variety was assigned. The running horse 

 had a name indicating what he could do. The pacing horse had a name indi- 

 cating the character of his gait, and the same of the trotting horses. 



"About 700 years after the Romans left Britain, Fitz Stephen, the monk of 

 Canterbury, describes the action of the pacer just as we would describe it to- 

 day, and gives him the place of honor as the saddle horse of the nobility and 

 gentry, while the trotter was assigned to their retainers. 



"In 1558, the year that Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne, Mr. Blun- 

 derville, one of the very earliest horse-writers in the English language, thus 

 described the different breeds of that period : ' Some men have a breed of great 

 horses rneete for the warre and to serve in the field. Others breed ambling 

 horses (pacers) of a mcane statue for to journey and to travel by the way. 

 Some againe, a race of swift runners to runne for wagers or to gallop the bucke 

 (hunters), but plane countrymen will have a breed only for draft or burden.' 

 Here we have the pacers designated as a breed and as the saddle horses of their 

 time. 



