SADDLE HORSES. 165 
teen miles an hour.” And he adds: “TI once owned a 
racker who could do a full mile in three minutes un- 
der the saddle, and you could carry a tumbler full of 
water in your hand without spilling a drop of it.” 
The trot requires no description. In this gait the 
off fore foot and the near hind foot strike and leave 
the ground exactly together, followed by the near 
fore and off hind foot. 
The canter is not considered perfect in a Kentucky 
horse until he can perform it at a rate no faster than 
a fast walk. To ‘canter all day in the shade of an 
apple tree,” is a well known saying. On this head 
an old trainer informs me, “I have taught horses 
to canter around a pole which I held in my hand 
with one end planted in the ground.” A well-broken 
Kentucky horse will of course change lead in the 
canter, and start with either foot leading, at the will 
of the rider. 
The gallop is an inartificial gait, and belongs rather 
to hunters and to polo ponies than to the saddle horse 
proper. ‘It may be used occasionally,” states a high 
school enthusiast, “but no one goes galloping along 
the road except a Sunday rider.” 
Of course it is no advantage to have a horse with 
all these gaits unless the rider is skilful enough to 
keep them separate. If the man is less instructed 
than the horse, a sad confusion of paces is apt to 
obtain. On the whole, a well-bitted, well-suppled 
horse, with a good trot and a good canter, would be 
more useful to the ordinary rider than would one of 
these highly accomplished saddlers.! 
1 The readiness with which Kentuckians accommodate them- 
selves to the New York market may be gathered from the follow- 
