THE FRAME WOKK OF THE HOUSE. 33 



many horses bring their hind feet (in all paces) more or 

 less ahead of the track or print of the fore ones ; indeed 

 almost all young and untrained horses will do so, and, 

 moreover, many whose work requires them to act thus 

 as, for instance, race-horses. This is best seen by the 

 hoof-marks left on moist ground or sand, which will be 

 found in double pairs instead of single ones after such 

 horses. Now of course it would be as absurd to suppose 

 that, under such circumstances, a horse takes shorter 

 steps with his fore legs than with the hind ones, as to 

 ignore what the immortal Hudibras pointed out long 

 ago namely, that when, having but one spur, you 

 make one side of your horse to get along, the other is 

 sure to follow ; a fact well known to Irish "bull-riders" 

 at Ballinasloe. 



There is another class of horses that, instead of over- 

 stepping, come short of the track of the fore feet with 

 the hind ones, and almost all horses do this at starting 

 in fact they cannot do otherwise ; these, too, leave a 

 double track. 



Now those that overstep will be usually found to be 

 such as are over-weighted on the forehand, whilst those 

 that step short are usually such as are over-weighted 

 behind, without the hind legs being brought under the 

 weight in a bent position like the manege-horse, or that 

 have some weakness, want of due proportion or other 

 deficiency, in their hind quarters. 



When a horse oversteps with his hind legs the track 

 of the fore feet (C, fig. 2), the succession of full lines 

 connecting the two diagonal feet in each alternate 

 movement is not, as shown in A, continuous, but 

 broken ; there is therefore an interval of time during 

 which the weight of the horse (and rider) is not sup- 



