156 FORM AND ACTION. 



arriving at such perfection in his art, even supposing the know- 

 ledge to be within our reach: which, by the by, we are by no 

 means assured of. 



So long as the horse is cantering or but hand-galloping, the hind 

 feet, advancing in lines either between or to the outer sides of the 

 fore feet, impress the ground somewhere about the places the 

 fore feet have just quitted; as the pace increases, however, the 

 reaches forward of the hind feet become so much the greater, thus 

 proportionably augmenting their leverage; which, combined with 

 their increased quickness of action, accounts for the additional 

 speed. Horses whose chests are not contracted, and who tread 

 close with their hind feet, throwing them well under the centre of 

 gravity, advance them in the interval between the fore limbs; 

 such as have narrow chests or go wide behind throw their hind 

 feet forward in lines outward of the fore ones : in both cases, at 

 speed, the hind feet reaching considerably beyond the prints of 

 the fore feet. And this forward throw of the hind feet underneath 

 the body is one of the best criterions we can have of the horse 

 being a good galloper. 



The gallop being the pace of speed, it is natural to ask what 

 feats of dispatch can be or have been performed by our fleetest 

 horses. There is a story still rife among our jockeys, that the 

 renowned Flying Childers ran a mile in a minute. This, however, 

 is an exploit that never was, nor probably ever will be, performed 

 by living machinery : for a course at the rate of sixty miles an 

 hour we must make our medium of transport a steam carriage, and 

 our road a railway. In 1772, however, according to our annals of 

 sporting, a mile was run by Firetail in a minute and four seconds, 

 which appears to be the greatest feat of speed on record*. 



* I extract the following account of " The Flying Childers" from Captain 

 Brown's " Biographical Sketches of Horses." 



" This horse was well known by the name of the Flying or Devonshire 

 Childers. He was the property of the Duke of Devonshire, who purchased 

 him, when young, of Leonard Childers, Esq., of Cart House, near Doncaster. 

 He was foaled in 1715, and was somewhat more than fifteen hands high. 

 His sire was the Darby Arabian. He ran against the best horses of his day, 

 and was never beaten. He was never tried at running a single mile, but his 

 speed must have been almost a mile in a minute. Carrying nine stone two 

 pounds, he ran over the round course at Newmarket, which is three miles, six 



