THE SADDLE-HORSE 



The running-walk and the fox-trot are easier 

 for the horse, and are most comfortable all-day 

 gaits for the rider ; but when all is said and done 

 these gaits are absolutely artificial, and most un- 

 natural to one's four-footed partner, as proved by 

 the fact that no loose horse ever employs them, 

 and every animal unless kept constantly collected 

 and made to differentiate them, will so run one into 

 the other, and so scuffle and shuffle in his efforts to 

 ease himself that all clearness is destroyed, and none 

 can tell where one begins and the other ceases. 



Although a " saddle-horse register " has been 

 started, and although the advocates of this variety 

 of horse have made and are making persistent 

 efforts to persuade the public of the vast merits 

 of their commodities, the demand for gaited 

 horses steadily decreases in the markets of the 

 world. The walk-trot-canter horse is the one the 

 public wants. 



If one uses it regularly, and was brought up to 

 (and on) it, the square trot is the easiest for man 

 and horse, the most natural, and the most sen- 

 sible, whether for long distance or short, for close 

 seat or " posting " (that is, rising in the stirrups). 

 Nearly all over the world this is the standard 

 gait, and it is no more tiresome than any other, 



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