THE AMBLE. 159 



horses canter with remarkable ease and elegance, a faculty they 

 owe to the superior aptitude they possess over British horses of 

 going upon their haunches ; and nothing conduces more to engender 

 this aptitude, where it is not natural in a horse, than school dis- 

 cipline, of which the continental horses in general get, I believe, a 

 great deal more than our own horses do : indeed, with the excep- 

 tion of military horses and a few others, the nags used in this 

 country rarely see the inside of a riding-school. 



THE AMBLE. 



We might regard what goes by the name of the amble as a 

 pace truly artificial had it not been occasionally seen in foals, and, 

 as Lecoq informs us, was it not natural to certain wild animals, 

 in particular to giraffes ? All equestrian writers appear to agree 

 in their description of it — in its being a pace performed by the 

 combined operation of the fore and hind limbs of either side ; one 

 biped being in the air while the opposite one is upon the ground, 

 and thus alternating their action. Lecoq has happily likened this 

 one-sided action constituting the amble to the gait of two men 

 marching a la militaire in open file, with an interval of about a 

 couple of seconds between their steps. We are informed by the 

 same authority that every advance made by either biped amounts 

 to about a third more than the admeasurement from fore foot to 

 hind while the animal is standing still; and that while the pace is 

 performing the hind foot invariably over-passes the print of the 

 corresponding fore foot, thereby obtaining great advantage of 

 leverage. 



" If," says Lecoq, " the amble has with reason been banished 

 from the manage, it is no less sought after, on account of the dou- 

 ceur de ses reactions, by persons who prefer ease or convenience 

 to brilliancy of pace or action. A distinction, however, must be 

 made between the ambler by nature and the horse in whom the 

 pace is the product of education or the result of weakness." 



In former days — in those good old days when the pillion was in 

 fashion — the amble bears record of being a pace in considerable 

 request: an ambling horse was a treasure as an easy and safe 



