158 FORM AND ACTION. 



or that they become, as in leaping, perfectly synchronous, I very 

 much doubt. Unfortunately, it is only in the canter and the slower 

 rates of gallop that the matter admits of any sort of ocular 

 demonstration. 



The canter will not only vary as performed by different horses, 

 but will also prove unlike any standard of the pace we may form 

 in our mind according as it has been the product of instruction by 

 a riding-master or as it has come naturally, or been the result of 

 common-place training or practice on the road. The school or 

 manage canter differs from the others in being a performance of 

 more gracefulness, better carriage, and one that calls forth much 

 more exertion of the bodily powers of the animal, particularly of 

 his hind quarters : indeed, it requires certain form of body and 

 action for its perfect execution, and on this account is performable 

 only by horses in possession of such properties. The lopping or 

 road canter — the careless, loose-reined swing in which the neck 

 is straightened and the head protruded — is altogether a different 

 performance of the same pace. Lecoq says, that the elevation of 

 the fore quarter in the canter is the reason why the beats, which 

 in the gallop were simultaneous, become separate and distinguish- 

 able, the fore limbs taking longer to descend than the hind ones: 

 since, after all however, both pairs of feet (hind and fore) must 

 take their turns in being planted upon the ground, and since the 

 hind cannot accomplish progression without the aid of the fore 

 limbs, the only difference this elevation of the fore quarters can 

 produce is lengthening the interval the hind feet are upon the 

 ground, according to the prolongation of that of the fore feet in the 

 air. 



All paces admit of improvement by practice, none in a greater 

 degree than the canter. No other pace allows of the display of 

 such grace and elegance of movement and carriage, and the mani- 

 festation of these is always a proof to us that the animal has either 

 received " lessons in the school," or else has been used by a rider 

 skilled in equitation. It is the easiest of the faster paces to the 

 rider, and, perhaps, the least fatiguing to the horse when he has 

 once learnt to perform it with facility, and on this account is often 

 preferred by gentlemen, always by lady equestrians. A good 

 cantering hack is a valuable acquisition. Some of the foreign 



