Gallop

“ Gallop, mare, gallop—there, there! So! We shall do it yet. I am lighter than old Basili! One more stretch! There he is! Gallop, mare, gallop, for I shall catch him on the hill!'
One hand grasped the sheet like a bridle, the other patted it encouragingly. Corona stared and listened breathlessly, half in horror, half in expectation. She did not hear the door open, as someone came in. The dying man raved on.
'What? Down? He has killed his horse? It shied at the woman in black! He will try the church door—on, mare, gallop! ”

“ Fig. 10.—Representation of the Horse at a Walking-Pace.
The gallop comprises all those paces in which irregular impacts of the feet upon the ground recur at regular intervals. Most writers distinguish three kinds of gallop by the rhythm of the impacts, and name them, according to this rhythm, gallop in two, three, and four time. The most common kind is the gallop in three-time, from which the tracings in Fig. 11 have been obtained. At the commencement of the figure the animal is suspended above the ground; then comes the impact P G, which announces that the left hind-foot touches the ground. ”

“ There is but one of the five "times" of the gallop which suggests even tolerable speed,—the one when all four feet are in the air and gathered well under the horse. At the instant when one of the hind legs is reaching forward to land, there is sometimes a suggestion of great speed and vigor. But the successive stilted strides when the straightened legs in turn assume the body's weight oppress the very soul of the lover of the Racing Plates. It must fain be left to the wisest heads, and perhaps better to time, to bring daylight from this darkness. ”

“ Of the gallop.—I have said that, until now, the greater part of the resources of horsemanship have not been understood, and had I need of another proof to support my opinion, I would draw it from the error, the suppositions, the innumerable contradictions that have been heaped together in order to explain so simple a movement as the gallop. What contrary opinions upon the means to employ to make the horse go off with his right foot? It is the support of the rider's right leg which determines the movement, one pretends ”

“ Finding that they refused to be driven out, and his two guns growing too warm to work, Gallop disengaged his anchor and again stood off; but this was enough, and five more Indians rushed up and threw themselves into the sea, preferring a death they well understood, to the tender mercies of a man who fought in such unknown fashions.
There being now but four of the savages left, Gallop boarded the pinnace, whereupon one of the survivors yielded, and was bound and stowed in the cabin for safe-keeping ”

“ Moreover, during the gallop on three legs, the horse is completely on his haunches. The hind legs carry all the weight, advance by very short steps, and always very close to the ground. Therefore, unless the horse is sent forward by the weight of the rider and by a strong effect of legs and spurs coupled with great tact of hand, the creature is exactly in the position to rear high. The gallop on three legs, like the gallop backward, demands a combination of favorable conditions as to both horse and rider that is in practice pretty difficult to find. ”

“ He continues at full gallop when other horses are dragging their feet in the dust for weariness.
A boy would be blown from his back, and even the strong rider loses his garments.
Fast is my steed as a top when a child has spun it well.
He has the flanks of a buck, the legs of an ostrich, and the gallop of a wolf. ”

“ As to the character of the gallop, when we press a horse in the trot beyond his capacity, or animate him with the legs while we raise or retain him with the hand, we compel him to lift his two fore-feet after each other, which commences the gallop. The near fore-foot is first raised from the ground; then the off fore-foot, which, however, passes the other, and they come to the ground in the same order, the near fore-foot making one beat, and the off fore-foot another, that being the most advanced or leading foot. The hind feet follow in the same manner ”

“ The hand gallop is an intermediate gait between the canter and the flying gallop. Its motion, though rather rapid, is smooth, easy, and very agreeable for both rider and steed. Nearly all horses, especially spirited ones, prefer this movement to any other; the bronchos on the plains of the far West will keep up this long, easy lope or hand gallop for miles, without changing their gait, or requiring their riders to draw rein, and without any apparent fatigue. ”

“ There are three kinds of gallop, namely, the rapid or racing, the hand gallop, and the canter.
The canter is a slow form of galloping, which the horse performs by throwing his weight chiefly upon his hind-legs, the fore ones being used more as supports than as propellers. [223] Horses will be found to vary in their modes of cantering, so much so as to render it almost impossible to describe them accurately. Small horses and ponies have a way of cantering with a loose rein, and without throwing much weight upon their haunches, moving their feet rapidly, and giving pattering hoof-beats. ”

“ The gallop comes of itself, and needs but care that your own position is good and does not lose firmness or interfere with your hands. Better sit down to the gallop. The jockey habit of galloping in the stirrups is rarely of use except as a means of changing your own seat and sometimes of easing your horse across ploughed fields or bad ground. It is never proper for the road. ”

“ For the gallop backward, the horse must be of perfect conformation, especially in its hind quarters, and must be educated to the point where it can interpret almost imperceptible effects of the rider. Its equilibrium and assemblage must be perfect—the sine qua non of this air, since the gait is very precise and the beats equal and uniform—and its strength must be sufficient to sustain without apparent exertion the gallop terre-à-terre. (Figure 41.)
In the gallop terre-à-terre, as in the piaffer, the horse is like a ball resting on one pole and movable by the slightest force. ”

“ I would here treat immediately of the gallop; but this pace, more complicated than the two others, demands an arrangement on the part of the horse, and a power on the part of the rider, that the preceding exercises have not yet been able to give. The proper placing of the horse's head spreads his forces over the whole of his body; it is necessary, in order to perform correctly the different exercises at a gallop, and to enable yourself properly to direct the forces in energetic movements, to bring them into a common focus—that is, to the centre of gravity of the animal. ”

“ The Gallop is an extension or exaggeration of the canter, the limbs not being elevated so much as in the canter, but extended to a greater extent, whilst the abdomen is brought nearer to the ground. For ordinary galloping the colt requires no teaching; only give him his head, and urge him forward fast enough, and he will gallop. For racing purposes the colt must be taught to make the most of his gallop ”

“ Galloping, however, like walking, is a perfectly natural pace, although it is a mistake to say that in the gallop the horse moves both fore and hind legs together, in what is frequently termed "a succession of jumps." That he does this in his top speed, and especially in making a supreme effort, as in a desperate finish of a race, is perfectly true: but it is equally certain that at half or three quarter speed he is leading with either near or off fore leg, and that anything but a full speed gallop is simply a very extended canter. ”

“ A CANTER is the slowest gallop, in which a horse bears most upon his haunches, but lightly on the bit; it is a pace which spirited, good-tempered horses seem to enjoy, and is peculiarly calculated for the accommodation of a lady. A RATING-GALLOP is the increase of action to such pace, as the particular horse may or can go with ease at his rate in common stroke without being exerted to speed; and this is the HUNTING GALLOP of thorough BRED HORSES, who will always lay by the side of HOUNDS at it, without being in the least distrest. ”

“ In this progressive method of obtaining the gallop lead on either foot, we began by increasing the gait from the trot and finished by taking the gallop from the walk because we are convinced that taking the gallop is easier in proportion to the speed of advancing. In our opinion, taking the gallop from the walk is the most difficult exercise and if insisted upon too early will result in horses that back or stand and resist. ”

“ The half-halt may, and should in practice, be made from the slow gallop by a very close collection, the union and balance of the forces, and the gallop be renewed in some form immediately, before the horse becomes heavy and the full halt ensues. The half-halt in the gallop has a variety of important uses, such as a preliminary step for making the gallop change, for making the gallop wheels, etc. ”

“ If the horse hangs upon the reins, its hind legs must be brought under the mass to lighten the forehand, and every movement should be light, even, and regular.
It is poor policy to put the horse into the gallop before its education has been brought to the point described in the preceding pages. It is highly important that the horse should be taught a perfectly controlled gallop, one in which every form of collection may be observed and in which the rider may demand the lead with either side and the changes of lead with precision. ”

“ The mob, with one impulse, wheeled, and set off at a heavy lumbering gallop, and the horses dashed in full gallop after them. It was a ride worth a year of a man’s life. Every man sat down to his work like a jockey finishing a race, and the big stock horses went through the long grass like hawks swooping down on a flock of pigeons. The men carried their carbines loaded, holding them straight up over the shoulder so as to lessen the jerking of the wrist caused by the gallop. ”

“ The work is then increased by a gallop over plowed ground, always following a progressive course, beginning with a short and rapid gallop, and ending, on the 15th of September, with a good gallop at hunting speed for 5 or 6 miles. If the horse is still too fat, if the muscles of the neck, loins, and thighs do not stand out well, if he perspires too freely, if the sweat is a white lather and not a colorless fluid, give him two or three gallops under blankets, covering well the parts you wish to lighten. ”

“ A horse is also said to gallop false when it leads with either side, after the rider has signaled for the other.
A horse galloping in a straight line leads with whichever side the rider determines. If this chances to be the left, the rider must change the foot before making a turn to the right. Otherwise the horse will gallop false.
Turning on the wrong foot is always dangerous. In turning, for example, to the right at the gallop, the center of gravity will be displaced toward the right, and the right lateral biped will take the longer step. ”

“ Galloon, ga-lōōn′, n. a kind of lace: a narrow ribbon made of silk or worsted, or of both.—adj. Gallooned′, adorned with galloon. [Fr. galon, galonner; prob. cog. with gallant.]
Gallop, gal′up, v.i. to move by leaps, as a horse: to ride a galloping horse: to move very fast.—v.t. to cause to gallop.—n. the pace at which a horse runs when the forefeet are lifted together and the hindfeet together: a ride at a gallop.—n. ”

“ The gallop must be attained at the moment the horse begins the change of direction; for if he does not relinquish the trot until the change of direction is completed his haunches can easily swing out and the favorable opportunity is lost. ”

“ The most certain sign of a horse’s trotting well is, that when, in his trot, the rider presses him a little, he offers to gallop. If the horse gallop when he ought not, the waist should be pushed forwards toward the pommel of the saddle, and a bend or hollow at the same time be made in the loins. ”

“ The Gallop does not only assure and make steady a weak and delicate Mouth, but it also supples a Horse, and makes him ready and active in his Limbs.—It fixes the Memory and Attention of Horses likewise, who from too much Heat and Impetuosity in their Temper, never attend to the Aids of the Rider, nor the Times of their setting off; it teaches those who retain themselves, to go forward, and to set off ready and with Spirit ”

“ It will therefore be readily understood that gallop leads, alternated at short intervals, will rapidly perfect the young horse's training and, moreover, that this is the best method of paving the way for the lesson of change of lead. ”

“ In a slow, united gallop the horse should be ridden on two paths, on straight lines and on circles, in exactly the same manner as in the trot, the horse being in gallop right in passing to the right, in gallop left in passing to the left, the forehand slightly in advance of the croup. ”

“ If you have available only bad or fair footing, do not gallop. By rigidly enforcing a schedule, regardless of conditions, the result will inevitably be injury to the animals. In any case, galloping should not begin outside until the rider is sure of his ability to make his horse lead off freely with either foot. He can then work his mount equally on both sides and can avoid those struggles that put a horse in the air during the whole ride.
Sweats.—A horse should not be sweated at the beginning of training, at least not until his disposition has been ”