THE GALLOP. 153 



advance in front, the harmony of action being destroyed, so uneasy 

 a seat is given to the rider, as well as a shake of that nature 

 to the whole frame of the horse, that forbids, on the part of both, 

 the discordance to be of long continuance. 



The action of the limbs in pairs it is that renders it so difficult — 

 nay, generably impossible — for a horse to strike at once into a 

 gallop ; most horses requiring some preparatory movement before 

 they can work their limbs into the required action and speed. The 

 momentum once gained, however, the machine by repeated strokes 

 of the limbs is easily kept in motion. The knowledge of this fact 

 constitutes the basis of the wager so commonly offered by con- 

 noisseurs, that a man shall run 50 yards before a horse can gallop 

 100. Were the race prolonged to 150 yards, the man would find 

 he stood not the slightest chance of winning it. * 



French equestrians distinguish three kinds or gradations of 

 gallop : — 1. The ordinary or hunting gallop, or the gallop with 

 three beats ; 2. The manage gallop, or the gallop with four beats ; 

 3. The racing gallop. The first and third of these accord with 

 our own practical notions of the pace, but the second can mean no 

 more than our canter : though where to draw the precise lines be- 

 tween the canter and what Ave call the hand gallop, and between 

 the hand and the hunting gallop, or between the latter and the 

 gallop of full speed, may prove more than any of us are able 

 satisfactorily to do. There is, certainly, a wide difference between 

 the paces of canter and gallop ; but to say with precision where 

 one ends and the other begins — whether the canter ought not to 

 exceed six or seven miles in an hour, or whether it ought to 

 amount, as others think, to eight or nine miles in the time, are 

 points too knotty for me, as a veterinarian, to unravel. Neither 

 is it easy to determine whether Lecoq be right or wrong in pro- 

 nouncing there are but three instead of four beats to be heard in 

 the ordinary gallop ; though I hesitate not to think he is in error 

 when he says, that the gallop of speed is a pace by itself in which 

 the body is transported through a succession of leaps. Mr. Blaine, 

 indeed, notwithstanding he pronounces the gallop of speed to con- 

 sist in a repetition of leaps, refuses assent to the doctrine of 

 " foreign manege masters," that " all the gallops are distinct paces. 

 On the contrary," says he, " I think them all constructed of one 



X 



