60 



DRIVING AS I FOUND IT. 



HIGH STEPPERS. 



A roadster good, not straddling high, 



Nor shuffling low I find thee, 

 But stepping straight and cheerily 



Dost leave the miles behind thee. 



It is considered by some persons the height of per- 

 fection and style to have a horse with a high knee 

 action ; so it is, providing he acts all round and in every 

 other way shows quality, but merely lifting his fi'ont 

 feet higher off the ground than another horse, does not 

 constitute a high-stepping horse in the proper sense of 

 the word. A horse that has more than ordinary action 

 in front should have the same behind in proper propor- 

 tion to make it natural. I must admit there are very 

 few that come up to this standard. It looks ridiculous 

 to see a horse go along picking his front feet off the 

 ground like a cat on hot bricks, at the same time shuf- 

 fling the hind ones along the road. A horse that acts 

 this way, except in very rare cases, has speed, but is gen- 

 erally too slow" for ordinary carriage work, the reason 

 being that the horse obtains his propelling power from 

 the hind legs, and the higher he picks them up w^hen 

 going the further he strides. Take for instance the 



