158 THE HORSE IN AMERICA 



oughbred type as a saddle-horse standard does 

 not obtain away from New York. In Philadelphia, 

 in Boston, in Chicago and all over the South and 

 West, the Denmark is still the saddle-horse par 

 excellence, as he deserves to be. A friend of mine, 

 in upholding the New York authorities for get- 

 ting an English judge for American saddle-horses, 

 says that the substitution was wise, because the 

 Kentucky horses hammer themselves all to 

 pieces on the hard roads in the parks of the East. 

 If the park roads in the East are harder than the 

 Kentucky turnpikes, I have yet to see them. His 

 idea seemed to be that every Kentucky horse was 

 sure to rack. But that is not so at all. He racks 

 when he is taught, and he is taught so easily that 

 he acquires the gait by what might be called sec- 

 ond nature; but the Denmark can be turned out 

 whenever desired to go only the three gaits — 

 walk, trot, and canter — and he does these with a 

 finish that the Thoroughbred cannot approach. 



But these other easily acquired Kentucky gaits 

 are not to be despised. The running- walk is not 

 hard upon the horse, and it is the easiest of all on 

 the rider. When men on business, or soldiers on a 



