36 ESSAYS ON HORSE SUBJECTS 



serving his way of going at the trot and walk, 

 do we find action that comes up to our ideal! 

 Perfect action, as far as usefulness is concerned, 

 is frictionless and light, and the foot is placed 

 on the ground squarely. There is no loss of time 

 or power in progression, or, in other words, the 

 frictionless mover does not labor, neither does the 

 light-stepper experience the ill-effects of concus- 

 sion, which is the result of bringing the foot to 

 the ground in a pounding manner. What a sav- 

 ing of wear and tear and power the smooth- 

 mover and light-stepper experiences! One is 

 amazed in instances to observe how much work 

 a weak-footed, poor-legged horse will stand and 

 still remain in workable condition. It can be ac- 

 counted for in many cases by the defects men- 

 tioned being compensated for by light action. 



It is interesting and instructive to study the 

 numerous and varying conditions that conduce 

 to defective action. Lightness of step appears 

 to be a quality not always dependent upon the 

 conformation of the individual. For instance, 

 length and obliquity of the pasterns are usually 

 said to cause lightness and elasticity of the tread, 

 but do not always do so, for we find many heavy- 

 going horses of this formation. Mechanically, 

 this should conduce to light-stepping, and does in 

 a measure, but the fact that horses with oblique 

 pasterns sometimes pound, leads us to look for 



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