LECTURES ON HORSES. 
343 
predict what will act well ; and one reason why we cannot is found 
in the circumstance of the physical powers requiring an excitement, 
which, being derived from vitality, is without the pale of our calcu- 
lation. Notwithstanding, we shall always do well to “observe,” 
with Solleysell, before a horse is put in motion, “ if he be right 
planted upon his limbs ; because upon the right or wrong posturing* 
of a horse, when he is standing still, doth depend, not wholly, but 
in part, his good or bad going and carriage.” In other words, a 
horse naturally — and not by trick or art shewn — standing well, is 
not likely to perform ill. 
We now come to the question, what constitutes good walking ? 
“For a horse to walk well,” says our excellent authority, old 
and venerable Solleysell, “ his steps should be quick ” — he should 
“ make two steps with his feet in the space that many horses make 
one.” — “ The four adverbs, LIGHTLY, SURELY, QUICKLY, EASILY, 
express all the most nice and curious can desire in a horse’s 
walk.” In this quaint description how much truth and nature 
sparkle forth ! What reader that does not in it discover the light- 
some, nimble, nodding hackney, catching up his foot, quickly and 
gracefully twirling it in the air, and afterwards putting it fairly, 
flatly, and firmly down upon the ground ; “ beating,” as Adams! 
says, with his feet as he goes along, “ one, two, three, four,” 
and with that regularity and decidedness that to the ear of the 
experienced horseman they tell “a music” he alone knows the 
value of. Every man conversant with horses recognizes this walk 
of the hackney the moment he beholds it — there is no mistaking 
it ; and the same as soon discovers the indifferent or bad walker. 
It is easier to point out defects in a horse’s walking than to define 
in what good or proper walking should consist — like many other 
things, we know it when we see it, but we hardly know how to 
describe it. Good walking will be found one thing in the cart- 
horse, another thing in the hackney or hunter, and a third thing 
in the race-horse ; and no one or single description will apply to 
the walks of all three breeds or kinds of horses. Again, foreign 
horses — Arabians, Spaniards, Dongolas, &c. walk in quite a dif- 
ferent style from British horses. There is a variation in the walk 
even beyond this. Two hackneys or riding horses will not walk 
alike, though both may be acknowledged to walk well : one will 
* In the translation of Solleysell’s work by Sir W. Hope, this (which in the 
original French is camper) is rendered camping : an un-English expression, 
and one that means — if it means anything — the stretching out of a horse as 
in the act of staling. The signification of the author here, is the posture or 
position which a horse, left to himself will assume ; and not any he may be 
thrown into through the art of the dealer or the cunning of the groom. 
t Analysis of Horsemanship. 
