466 
LECTURES ON HORSES. 
select in expectation of being a good galloper. On the other hand, 
shortness of make, combined with uprightness in the joints, such 
as we evidence in the dray or cart horse, may serve for trotting, 
but can in nowise answer the purposes of galloping : it is im- 
possible for spring and speed to result from such conformation. We 
are not, however, to take it for granted that length of body and 
limb are the only requisites — that all horses so made can gallop : 
some there are that have not the faculty of speed, other require- 
ments being wanting. As with the other paces it would, indeed, 
be a consummation of the equestrian’s skill could he in every 
instance connect speed or action with form, and determine when, 
for want of the necessary adjuncts, although the form was present, 
the speed must be absent. As, however, I observed on a former 
occasion, in consequence of the vital influences having a share in 
the production of action and speed, there seems faint chance of the 
horseman ever arriving at such perfection in his art, even supposing 
the knowledge to be within our reach : which, by the by, we are 
no means assured of. 
So long as the horse is cantering or but hand-galloping, the hind 
feet advancing in lines either between or to the outer sides of the 
fore feet, impress the ground somewhere about the places the 
fore feet have just quitted; as the pace increases, however, the 
reaches forward of the hind feet become so much the greater, thus 
proportionably augmenting their leverage, which, combined with 
their increased quickness of action, accounts for the additional 
speed. Horses whose chests are not contracted, and who tread 
close with their hind feet, throwing them well under the centre of 
gravity, advance them in the interval between the fore limbs; 
such as have narrow chests or go wide behind, however, throw 
their hind feet forward in lines outward of the fore ones : in both 
cases, at speed, the hind feet reaching considerably beyond the 
prints of the fore feet. And this forward throw of the hind feet 
underneath the body is one of the best criterions we can have of 
the horse being a good galloper. 
The gallop being the pace of speed, it is natural to ask what 
feats of dispatch can be or have been performed by our fleetest 
horses. There is a story still rife among our jockeys, that the 
renowned Flying Childers ran a mile in a minute. This, however, 
is an exploit that never was, nor probably ever will be, performed 
by living machinery : for a course at the rate of sixty miles an 
hour we must make our medium of transport a steam carriage, and 
our road a railway. In 1772, however, according to our annals of 
sporting, a mile was run by Firetail in a minute and four seconds, 
which appears to be the greatest feat of speed on record. 
