4G8 
LECTURES ON HORSES. 
only by horses in possession of such properties. The lopping or 
road canter — the careless, loose-reined swing in which the neck 
is straightened and the head protruded — is altogether a different 
performance of the same pace. Lecoq says, that the elevation of 
the fore quarter in the canter is the reason why the beats, which 
in the gallop were simultaneous, become separate and distinguish- 
able, the fore limbs taking longer to descend than the hind ones : 
since, after all, however, both pairs of feet (hind and fore) must 
take their turns in being planted upon the ground, and since the 
hind cannot accomplish progression without the aid of the fore 
limbs, the only difference this elevation of the fore quarters can 
produce is lengthening the interval the hind feet are upon the 
ground, according to the prolongation of that of the fore feet in the 
air. 
All paces admit of improvement by practice, none in a greater 
degree than the canter. No pace allows of the display of such 
grace and elegance of movement and carriage as the canter, and 
the manifestation of these is always a proof to us that the animal 
has either received “lessons in the school,” or else has been used 
to a rider skilled in equitation. It is the easiest of the faster paces 
to the rider, and, perhaps, the least fatiguing to the horse when he 
has once learnt to perform it with facility, and on this account is 
often preferred by gentlemen, always by lady equestrians. A good 
cantering hack is a valuable acquisition. Some of the foreign 
horses canter with remarkable ease and elegance, a property they 
owe to the superior aptitude they possess over Britsh horses of 
going upon their haunches ; and nothing conduces more to engender 
this aptitude, where it is not natural in a horse, than school dis- 
cipline, of which the continental horses in general get, I believe, a 
great deal more than our own horses do : indeed, with the excep- 
tion of military horses and a few others, the nags used in this 
country rarely see the inside of a riding-school. 
THE AMBLE. 
We might regard what goes by the name of the amble as a 
pace truly artificial had it not been occasionally seen in foals, and, 
as Lecoq informs us, was it jiot natural to certain wild animals, 
in particular to giraffes ] All equestrian writers appear to agree 
in their description of it — in its being a pace performed by the 
combined operation of the fore and hind limbs of either side; one 
biped being in the air while the opposite one is upon the ground, 
and thus alternating their action. Lecoq has happily likened this 
one-sided action constituting the amble to the gait of two men 
marching a la militaire in open file, with an interval of about a 
