LECTURES ON HORSES. 
465 
Barring the broad and obvious distinction there exists between 
the gallop and the canter, it is difficult, if not impracticable, as I 
said just now, to draw any lines of division in the gallop farther 
than as regards the rate at which the animal is going. At the 
same time we must all admit that the gallop, as we witness its 
performance by horses of different breeds and shapes, is a pace 
admitting of many variations from any standard of galloping 
action or rate of speed we may presume to set up. Lecoq’s 
marks of distinction of four, three, and two beats, will not, I think, 
bear the scrutiny of practice ; and even if they did, the perform- 
ance of any of the gradations of the pace, from the canter to the 
gallop, will prove altogether different by the heavy or cart-horse 
from what it would by the light and active or thorough-bred 
horse. And again, of horses of the same breed, some are formed 
peculiarly well for galloping ; whereas the make of others seems 
better adapted for trotting. The racing gallop is evidently so far 
a peculiar pace that no other description of horse can execute it 
with the same perfection as the race-horse. With the dart-like 
projecture of his limbs, lifted no more than sufficiently off the 
ground to go clear of obstacles ; with his bending his back and 
loins, and lowering himself, and laying himself out at his full 
length along the ground ; and with the vast strides and springs 
forward he in this position is capable of making, he in fleetness 
excels almost every other animal, and far surpasses every fellow 
of his own kind, not thorough-bred, that can be brought against him. 
So far the race-horse — I might in pride say the English racer — 
is an animal veritably sui generis. Contrast the clumsy gallop of 
the cart-horse — if the pace as he performs it can be so called — 
with the airy skimming movement of the race-horse ; nay, com- 
pare the high, round, or clambering gallop of the foreign horse, or 
that of many of our hacks, our trotters especially, with the racer’s 
action, and how strikingly different are they found ! All this will 
go to demonstrate the truth of what I have just asserted, that, so 
far as regard different horses, there are many and various kinds of 
gallops, though to class them or make any sort of useful arrange- 
ment or distribution of them is a task to which we, for the pre- 
sent at least, may find ourselves incompetent. 
The circumstances of the cart-horse hardly being able to gallop 
at all, while the race-horse is evidently “ made for galloping,” may 
serve, on due consideration, to throw some light on that conforma- 
tion of body and limb which is peculiarly characteristic of a good 
galloper. Length everywhere in the form of the body appears 
indispensable : length of neck, back, and loin ; length of limb, of 
arms, and thighs, and pasterns, are all seen to advantage in the 
well-formed racer, and must predominate in any horse we may 
