368 HOESE POKTBAITUKE. 



is necessary to let the horse slide along, so as to induce 

 the bending of the knee, which will enable him to go fast, 

 and thus, by associating the necessarily higher action re- 

 quired by speed, and that of the rattles together, the ben- 

 efit is permanent. I have known a horse's knee action 

 improved by being driven in deep sand, but there are few 

 horses that would not be endangered in other respects, 

 which would not be compensated for by the acquirement 

 of better action in their knees. 



PUPIL. Allonging the colts in a deep, light snow, has a 

 good effect in increasing the bending of their knees, and 

 I am in the habit of practicing them through the winter 

 whenever a suitable time comes. I have seen colts that 

 did not exhibit anything of a trotting gait when running 

 in the pasture field, but on a fall of snow take to trotting 

 through it in a manner that could not be excelled. A 

 neighbor of mine bred three colts, which I purchased when 

 they were yearlings. They were by the Falcon, and their 

 dams were half-bred. The one from the fastest trotting 

 mare disappointed me greatly. He did not seem to have 

 the faculty of bending his knees at all when trotting, and 

 would shuffle along at that gait, turning his feet out ; the 

 whole motion appearing to be confined to the upper 

 pastern joint. He was very handsome and showed a good 

 deal of breeding. I gave him to a friend of mine, telling 

 him I was afraid he would prove an exception to the most 

 of his relatives, though I still had hopes that the family 

 charteristics only laid dormant, and would develop them- 

 selves in time. From having more colts than I could 

 break, he was suffered to run till after he was five years 

 old, before he had a harness put on him. The winter 

 previous, the snow was very deep, and I had the satisfac- 

 tion of seeing him trot through it with no fault apparent 

 in his action. When broken, I drove him on a sandy road 

 for a while, and in less than two months he could trot 



