458 Types and Market Classes of Live Stock 



gait. The feet should be well-developed, uniform in size, point straight 

 forward, and slope at the same angle as the pastern. The horn of the 

 hoof should be dense and smooth, the sole should be concave, the bars 

 strong, the frog large and elastic, and the heel wide and open. 



Gait. — Both pacers and trotters are found among light-harness 

 horses. These gaits differ from each other in that the pace is a lateral 

 motion in which the fore and hind leg of the same side act together, 

 while the trotter moves diagonally. A change of a few ounces in the 

 weight of a shoe often transforms the gait. Many horses hold records 

 at both gaits. The pacing gait is about two seconds faster for the 

 mile than the trot, but it is not so popular with horsemen as the trotting 

 gait, especially for road driving. With the pace there is often asso- 

 ciated a decided rolling of the body, which is disliked, the pull on the 

 vehicle is jerky, and the pacer does not work well in the mud or 

 where the going is heavy. The natural pacer also frequently possesses 

 a steep croup, short underline, and sickle-shaped hind leg. 



Action. — The walk should be true, quick, elastic, and regular. The 

 trot, in order to be fast without undue tiring of the horse, must be 

 straight and true, with regular, even, long stride. Height of action is 

 of little importance; in fact, the less knee and hock action the better. 

 It is only important that the foot clear the ground, accompanied by 

 enough action of knee and hock to secure length of stride. There 

 should be no hitching or unsteadiness of gait, and no great tendency 

 to break when going at speed. The action should be what is sometimes 

 termed "frictionless," giving one the impression of a perfect mechanism 

 that can travel at greatest speed with no waste of energy. It is appar- 

 ent that much of the success of the light-harness horse depends upon 

 good action, and good action, in turn, is dependent largely upon proper 

 position of the legs. Defects in conformation result in knee knocking, 

 speedy cutting, over-reaching, and other faults of action. ^ 



Common defects in the action of light-harness horses are (1) 

 swinging the fore feet inward, instead of carrying them straight away, 



(2) a stride in which extension is more marked than flexion, and in 

 which the heel of the foot strikes the ground first, called "pointing," 



(3) pause in flight of foot before foot reaches ground, called "dwelling," 



(4) striking sole or heels of fore foot with toe of hind foot, called 

 "forging," (5) striking supporting leg with foot of striding leg, called 

 "interfering," (6) hitting front of hind foot, above or at line of hair, 

 against toe or fore foot as it breaks over, called "scalping," (7) the 

 trotter at speed often goes rather wide behind, and he sometimes 

 strikes his hind leg, above the scalping mark, against the outside of the 



I Faulty shoeing also frequently causes faulty action. Correct shoeing fre- 

 quently overcomes or minimizes natural faults in action. 



