The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-12-10
Changing a Horses Gait.
pondence Philadelphia Press.

correspondence Phladeiphla Press.
1 have a sQuare-b built horse but shade over
fifteen hands high, but his sloping shoulders,
short back, and the gay carriage of his head sug
gested that although trif1e too low, he might
make good saddle horse. His dam was Ca
madam mare, with pacing blood in her. and his
sire was son of Hambletonian. He had no
other gait before he was mounted, than a square.
open trot, but under the saddle he began to
tangle up his legs into some of the odd Ken
lucky steps, single foot, fox trot, and the like
These motions, know, are quite questionable,
and the riding masters In the
schools would never tolerate them But
common teaches that a shift of gait must
rest horse. Experience has proved to me that
the shift refreshes the rider. But horse with
several gats is not accomplished unless he varies
them to suit the will of his rider. 1t is an ad-
vantage if he knows how to single foot. but this
| one-twO-threefour movement is distressing
when you want trot, and the springiest of
trots is intolerabie when you want your horse to
canter. The problem is to make the horse take
the step you want with prompt obedience. The
books and teachers will tell you much of interest
on this point, but this was my way:
The principle of association is the great power
in animal training. That is, when horse finds
by experience that two things habtually accom-
pany each other, as soon as one of these is
brought into his mind through any sense, sight,
hearing, feeling the other is suggested. When
my horse hurried out of his walk he often
took a few steps of very easy movement before
settling into a trot How should persuade him
to keep up that gait? / first held him back from
his trot so that he would take few more steps
in it than usual, and invariably beat him on the
side of his neck at every other step bv touching
him with the butt of my whip. He
soon began to associate the tapping with the pc
culiar movement of his legs, and after a few
lessons l only needed to touch his neck two or
three times and he would fall into time without
any other hint. It was not natural for him to
canter. but when forced into the gait began to
beat time on his withers with the knuckles of
my bride hand. In less than fortnight he
was schOoled so we'll that whether he was stand
two or three taps from my knuckles would settle
him into a canter. To bring him to a trot only
need to sacken the tension on his curb rein a
tri1e and let him feel a slight but steady pres
sure on the snafie. have taught him to asso-
ciate this feeling with trot.
Now this is not written to suggest these mo-
tions the best. They were adopted partly by
| accident But the principle is to be in
sisted on. That is, associate certain things to-
gether in horses mind and you have the key
to controlling him. Only let one motion or one
sound always mean one and the same thing
And this is good place to protest against the
practice of calling Whoa! whoa!" to a horse
when you only wish him to slow up. If a
short, explosive, though not necessarily loud,
''whoa!" is always spoken to a young horse
when brought to a full stop. so that the sound
means just that and nothing else, the associa-
ton may save life sometimes when prompt
halt is needed.