12 JUDGING LIGHT HORSES 



in snow, makes it necessarj^ to have a smooth hard road to 

 enjoy the pleasures of the gait. 



Among pacers there is often noticeable a type that is not 

 desirable in any class. It can hardly be called typical 

 of this class of horses for many of those that are fastest at 

 this gait, do not have the very low fore hand, the cramped 

 hind quarters or bent-in hocks that are often connected with 

 this form. The horse that paces smooth and true exhibits 

 an easy and pleasing manner of going as well as one effective 

 in producing speed, but there are many varieties of this gait 

 that are the reverse of this because of defects in conformation 

 which preclude rapid movement in any other manner. 



12. The Saddle Horse. The type of the saddle horse is 

 somewhat similar to that of the carriage horse but the typical 

 saddle horse shows more quality and better manners than 

 any other class of light horses. Aside from these features 

 the most necessary qualifications of the saddle horse are the 

 ability to show the different gaits that are required of horses 

 of this class. The standard performances adopted by the 

 executive committee of the American Saddle Horse Associa- 

 tion are the following gaits: (i) Walk. (2) Trot. (3) 

 Single foot or rack (4) Canter. (5) Slow pace, running 

 walk or fox trot. The gait known as single foot or rack is 

 very similar to the pace, except that in the latter the two 

 feet of the same side move together while in the single foot 

 the hind foot reaches the ground shortly before the front 

 foot on the same side. The gait known as single foot is con- 

 sidered synonymous with that of the rack and it has been 

 described as exactly intermediate between the true walk and 

 the true trot, each foot apparent^-/ moves independent of the 

 other with what has been termed a "one at a time move- 

 ment." 



13. Quality. This term applied to horses has reference 

 to their bones, skin and hair. Evidences of quality are 

 clearly cut features, glove-like skin, silky hair and firm, clean 



