THE HORSE ON A JOURNEY 159 



ing, force the brute to increased action, and from that 

 probably prevent his tripping as often as he might other- 

 wise do ; but to ride a willing, good horse till he requires 

 this is so unjustifiable, that if I knew anything that would 

 save such a rider a severe fail, I should glory in concealing 

 it from him. 



Tripping is a habit or fault common to multitudes of 

 horses who are nevertheless perfectly safe. It usually 

 arises from striking the toe against some surface ; and a 

 horse well on his haunches may do this ad infinitum 

 without once being in danger of coming down. He would, 

 naturally enough, alarm a person not used to ride him, for 

 he would not know how far it might go ; and even 

 supposing a stranger to be riding such a horse in company 

 with his master, though the latter might say, * Don't pull 

 him about — he is quite safe,' a man must be an experienced 

 horseman, a good judge of what is or is not unsafe, and 

 must also have a good opinion of the owners judgment, 

 to feel confidence on such a horse. 



The rider may be quite sure that a horse of any spirit 

 has as great an objection to falling as his rider has to his 

 doing so ; and the quick way in which such horses catch 

 themselves up, if they make a mistake or unavoidable 

 stumble, shows that such is the case. Now a trip merely 

 occasions a horse to bring the foot that he has not tripped 

 with sooner to the ground than he would have done had he 

 carried the tripping foot forward to its regular length of 

 step, be that more or less ; something has stopped it in its 

 progress, so instead of putting it forward, say fourteen inches, 

 it is stopped at ten. This produces a somewhat unpleasant 

 sensation to the rider, and an unequal step in the horse. 

 This is a trip. If the horse is light and airy, he catches 

 himself up ; and as the more spirited he is, the more quickly 

 and energetically will he do so, this very often leads an 

 inexperienced horseman into the belief that he has narrowly 

 escaped a most serious fall, when, in fact, it is only the 

 spirit and activity of the horse that have induced him to 

 make a considerable effort to remedy a very inconsiderable 

 mistake, and one that in a more indolent horse, not noticing 

 himself, would scarcely have been noticed by the rider. It 

 will therefore be clear that, with a horse who has spirit 

 enough to do of his own accord all that we could make or 

 wish him to do if he does make a trip, any check on his 



