ABC DIFFICULT TO LEARN. 127 



The learning to be a good judge of pace is really 

 very difficult. The walk, the trot, and top speed are 

 all distinct definite paces that every ploughboy knows : 

 but the intermediate paces that a race-horse at exer- 

 cise and in strong work has to go become distinct 

 to the rider only by practice and observation : the 

 different styles of going and action in different horses 

 deceive very much. Some feel to be going much 

 faster under you than others, though they really are 

 not, and vice versa. A lad to lead a gallop to-day on 

 a smooth-going long-striding horse, and to lead one 

 the next on a compact quick-striking one r 'and make 

 the pace exactly the same on both, requires no small 

 share of discrimination and judgment. A boy may 

 be told, on a horse in strong work, to "bring him 

 away the first mile at his usual pace, to hustle him 

 along a bit the next mile and a half, and to come 

 along the next half mile at a good telling pace." 

 This is all A B C to a clever and practised lad, and 

 he would do it to a nicety. But to begin, what is 

 the " usual pace " he is told to go ? Now many boys, 

 though they had followed half a dozen horses for a 

 fortnight up the same gallop at a given pace, send 

 them by themselves, would no more go the same 

 pace than they would fly, or know more of the 

 pace they were going than they or I should how many 

 knots an hour a ship was going. Allowing me a 

 little latitude of idea, I will compare the learning all 

 this to learning music and to sing. Tell a man to 

 strike F natural on the pianoforte ; there it is defined : 

 so are the walk, trot, and gallop. Tell the same man 

 to sound F natural on his own voice : this is " bien 

 autre chose:" nothing but practice, judgment, and 

 ear will teach him to do this ; so will nothing but 



