12 JUDGING LIGHT HORSES 



on rough, broken roads or in snow, makes it necessary to 

 have a smooth hard road to enjoy the pleasures of the gait. 

 Among pacers there is often noticeable a type that is 

 not desirable in any class. It can hardly be called typical 

 of this class of horses for many of those that are fastest 

 at this gait, do not have the very low fore hand, the 

 cramped hind quarters or bent-in hocks that are often con- 

 nected with this form. The horse that paces smooth and 

 true exhibits an easy and pleasing manner of going as well 

 as one effective in producing speed, but there are many 

 varieties of this gait that are the reverse of this because of 

 defects in conformation which preclude rapid movement 

 in any other manner. 



12. The Saddle Horse. The type of the saddle horse 

 is somewhat similar to that of the carriage horse but the 

 typical saddle horse shows more quality and better man- 

 ners than any other class of light horses. Aside from 

 these features the most necessary qualifications of the 

 saddle horse are the ability to show the different gaits 

 that are required of horses of this class. The standard 

 performances adopted by the executive committee of the 

 American Saddle Horse Association are the following 

 gaits: (1) Walk. (2) Trot. (3) Single foot or rack. 

 (4) Canter. (5) Slow pace, running walk or fox trot. 

 The gait known as single foot or rack is very similar to 

 the pace, except that in the latter the two feet of the 

 same side move together, while in the single foot the hind 

 foot reaches the ground shortly before the front foot on 

 the same side. The gait known as single foot is consid- 

 ered synonymous with that of the rack and it has been 

 described as exactly intermediate between the true walk 

 and the true trot, each foot apparently moves independent 

 of the other with what has been termed a "one at a time 

 movement." 



13. Quality. This term applied to horses has reference 

 to their bones, skin and hair. Evidences of quality are 

 clearly cut features, glpve-like skin, silky hair and firm. 



