30 



THE HORSE, ASS, AND MULE 



other gait ; secondarily, because they are imitators of the English fashion of 

 riding ; and lastly, and leastly, because they do not like other educated and 

 easier gaits. 



These easier gaits are the running walk and the rack. The latter is also 

 called single foot, inasmuch as in this gait each foot has a separate impact 

 on the ground, no two of them striking it at the same time, as in the trot 

 and pace. 



The running walk is called a slow gait, and there are two other gaits 

 allied to it, — the slow pace and the fox trot. The name "running walk" 

 defines the gait accurately, and at once identifies it to the understanding. 



It is faster than a flat-foot 

 walk, and is produced by a 

 movement of the legs more 

 rapid than in a walk, but in 

 about the same rhythm ; that 

 is, each foot strikes the 

 ground independently of 

 the others. Most horses 

 going the running walk bob 

 or nod their heads, and some 

 of them even flop their ears 

 in rhythm with their footfalls. 

 1 1 is an all-day gait, easy alike 

 to the horse and the rider, 

 and it covers ground at an 

 astonishing fashion for its 

 apparent speed. It is taught 

 by urging a horse out of the 

 walk but restraining him 

 from a trot. 



The slow pace is a some- 

 what similar movement but 

 borders more on the side- 

 wheel gait or lateral pace, in which the two feet on one side of a horse 

 strike the ground at the same instant. The true pace, however, is in no 

 sense a saddle gait. It is rough and uncomfortable. A rider cannot rise to 

 it and save himself, as in a trot, and it is positively the worst gait a saddle 

 horse can possess. In the slow pace this side-wheel motion is slightly modi- 

 fied so that the impact on the ground of the two feet on a side is broken, 

 thus avoiding the rolling motion of the true pace. The slow pace is a very 

 comfortable gait, and is very showy, especially when a horse throws just a 

 bit of knee action into it. It has grown common in the show ring during 

 recent years, as saddle-horse trainers appreciate its catchy qualities and 

 endeavor to teach their horses to go this gait. The best saddle-horse men, 

 however, do not look on it with favor, as it is so easily corrupted into the 



Fig. 9. Lady Bonnie. Champion three-gaited 

 American saddle horse at Chicago Horse 

 Show, 1904, owned by Miss Jennie Bull, 

 Racine, Wisconsin. From photograph from 

 Miss Bull 



