16; 



CHAPTER XVI. 



THE DIFFERENT PACES OF HORSES. 



Horses have four distinct paces, viz., walking, 

 trotting, cantering, and galloping, and when they 

 are well trained they should not do more than one 

 of them at a time. 



THE COMBINATION OF PACES. 



Nothing is more uncomfortable to the rider, and 

 hardly anything looks so bad as a horse walking and 

 trotting, as it were, at the same time. The American 

 trotter may be included in this category, though the 

 high rate of speed at which he travels is extraordinary. 

 There is another peculiar combination of paces — some- 

 thing midway between a trot and a canter — which 

 is most offensive to the feeling and eye of a skilled 

 horseman. It is quite impossible to post gracefully 

 to such a motion as it is too fast and irregular for 

 trotting ; nor can the easy swinging position of a 

 well-sustained canter be maintained, because it is too 

 slow and uncertain for cantering, and so, with a 

 badly -trained animal of this kind one must just 

 grind his teeth and endure. This disagreeable motion 



