1,86 TRAVELS THROUGH NORTH' AMERICA l 
always run to the left; the horses are com* 
hi only rode by negro boys, some of whom 
are really good jockeys. 
The horses in common use in Virginia are 
all of a light description, chiefly adapted for 
the saddle; some of them are handsome, but 
they are for the most part spoiled by the false 
gaits which they are taught. The Virginians 
are wretched horsemen, as indeed are all the 
Americans I ever met with, excepting some 
few in the neighbourhood of New York, 
They sit with their toes just under the horse’s 
nose, their stirrups being left extremely long, 
and the saddle put about three or four inches 
forward on the inane. As for the manage¬ 
ment of the reins, it is what they have no 
conception of. A trot is odious to them, and 
they express the utmost astonishment at a 
person who can like that uneasy gait, as they 
call it. The favourite gaits which all their 
horses are taught, are a pace and a wrack. In 
the first, the animal moves his two feet on 
one side at the same time/ and gets on with 
a sort of shuffling motion, being unable to 
spring from the ground on these two feet as 
in a trot. We should;call this an unnatural 
gait, as none of our horses would ever move 
in that maimer without a rider ,* but the Ame¬ 
ricans insist upon it that it is otherwise, be¬ 
cause many of their foals pace as soon as boro. 
