320 HIGH-SCHOOL RIDING. 



he entirely misunderstood this pace, the proof being that 

 he never said with which leg the horse led or ought to 

 lead. 



Having broken Gant for a lady, I taught him the canter to 

 the rear on the right leg so that the lady might be able to 

 keep him at this pace with her spur, which is to the left. I 

 have done more than this, for I succeeded in teaching the 

 thorough-bred Germinal, by Flavio, out of Pascale, to canter 

 to the rear either on one foot or on the other, according as I 

 wished. I claim the honour to be the first to obtain this 

 result. Whether a horse canters to the rear or to the 

 front, the rider ought always to be able to say on which 

 leg he is. 



The canter to the rear with the near fore leading — although 

 it is a pace of four time — ought to be made in the same way 

 as if the horse was cantering to the front m three time — 

 namely, first time, off hind ; second time, right diagonal ; 

 third time, near fore. The great difficulty is to prevent the 

 respective fore and hind legs being placed on the same 

 transverse line. The off hind should be placed in rear of the 

 near hind in order to preserve almost the same longitudinal 

 distance between the two legs, as in the ordinary canter. I 

 purposely say " nearly the same distance," because the strides 

 are shorter. I need not add that the off fore should be behind 

 the near fore, as in the forward canter. 



We have seen that a stride of the canter consists of three 

 times on the ground — namely, hind leg support, diagonal 

 support, and fore leg support, as we see done with great 

 precision in a good hunting canter, or what we call a hand 

 gallop. But in the full speed gallop and in the canter without 

 gaining ground, or the canter to the rear, which are the two 

 extremes, the stride is in four time. In the canter to the left, 

 for instance, the two legs which form the right diagonal, 

 instead of touching the ground simultaneously, come down 



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