The Pacing Horse 307 



allow the diagonal stroke to be made with ease. 

 The hind leg then follows the corresponding fore 

 leg to avoid interference. I have seen Mr. Bon- 

 ner, who was a profound student of equine 

 structure and the greatest enthusiast that the 

 world has known on foot-balancing, take a pac- 

 ing colt and in a few minutes change it to a 

 trotter by simply changing the bearing of its 

 heels. Colts of this description had the trotting 

 conformation, but the form was distorted by an 

 uneven growth of hoof. Were the laws of balance 

 better understood than they are by the mass of 

 mankind, the list of pacers would not swell as it 

 does from year to year. It is not worth while to 

 devote much space to obscure pacing families 

 when we see pacers springing from sires of estab- 

 lished blood lines and of world-wide reputation. 

 Take George Wilkes, for instance. Although a 

 great progenitor of trotters, he sired pacers, and 

 his sons and daughters are producers of pacers. 

 With him it is not inheritance, only so far as con- 

 formation is modified by mares to which he was 

 bred, or by reversion to some previous type. 

 Man is often bewildered by the way in which a 

 former ancestor, after lying dormant for genera- 

 tions, awakens and asserts its power. Gambetta 



