280 HOW TO niDE A HORSE. 



tlie necessarily sioagging seat of their riders, exclude the 

 gait from the manege. 



To an accomplished horseman, pacing is either painfully 

 swinging or painfully dull. So long as his horse moves 

 forward in a direct line he can preserve a safe, elegant, and 

 comfortable seat, no matter how high the action; but 

 when to the forward movement there is added a swaying 

 from side to side, such a seat is impossible ; and, indeed, 

 all works on horsemanship, only teach the means for cor- 

 recting this gait as a vice. Still, as many of the readers 

 of this work may have reason, on account of timidity or 

 physical weakness, to prefer pacing horses, their attention 

 is called to the superior advantages of that particular 

 variety of the gait called " Backing." 



A true pacer moves the two feet of each side at the 

 same time, and his action is neither so safe nor so pleasant 

 as that of the racker^ whose feet are set down one after the 

 other in regular one two three four time. • 



Turning. — In turning the horse, in any pace, the rider 

 should recollect that he is not simply to pull him round 

 by the head, as this will invariably induce a contraction of 

 the neck or of the whole body. The legs should be held 

 sufficiently close to the sides to keep the horse's hind legs 

 well under him, and the leg on the side toward which it is 

 desired to turn should be carried back of the girths at the 

 same time that the head is drawni toward the sides ; this 

 Avill cause the horse to turn gracefully, and to retain his 

 lightness. 



The Halt. — There is one principle Vvhich must be borne 

 in mind, in making a sudden halt from a rapid pace ; that 

 is, that if the hind legs are under the body, when the horse 

 stops, they receive their share of the shock, whereas, it 

 they are not so placed, the whole shock comes on the fore- 

 legs, and a sudden halt becomes dangerous, or disagree- 



