TROTTING AXD AMBLING. 127 



in excess, but of a peculiar nature, and is, perhaps, 

 more than any other, transmitted from sire to son, 

 as the produce of the various Norfolk and Ameri- 

 can trotters have shown. The amble is a pace 

 very little known in England, although very gene- 

 ral on the Continent, where the act of rising in the 

 stirrups by the horseman in the trot is not prac- 

 tised. We wonder, however, that horses are not 

 oftener broken to this pace than they are, for 

 the use of women, or of men unequal to fatigue. 

 Although the amble is not allowed to be a pace in 

 the manege, the walk, trot, and gallop being all, 

 it is said to be the first pace of the horse when 

 a foal, but when he has strength to trot, he quits 

 it. Another peculiarity attends it. A horse, wt 

 know, can be put from a trot to a gallop without 

 stopping, but he cannot be forced from an amble 

 to a gallop without a halt. 



The Pack-Horse. — This description of horse is 

 not now in use. His capabilities were prodigious 

 in carrying weight, but were abused by being tres- 

 passed upon. When crossed with the heavy cart- 

 horse, a most useful breed for draught was pro- 

 duced, as also what was called the farmer's hack- 

 ney — ^that is, a sturdy animal between the cart- 

 horse and the hackney, useful for all purposes of 

 agriculture, as well as for carrying his owner, and 

 always ready to give help, upon a pinch, either in 

 the plough, the harrow, or the harvest-cart. 



The Cob. — The word cob is one of new mintas^e 



