FIFTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IV 277 



a deformity and lessened, rather than increased, her chances. The proof 

 is in the fact that Mooers lost several valuable prizes, including a num- 

 ber of firsts, that this mare would clearly have won from the fact that 

 her shoes could not be kept on her and she flung them off as fast as a 

 smith at the ringside could tack them back on. Others of his horses 

 were the same way, and in one class all of his entries had shoes off, one 

 after the other, until there was a miniature pile of iron where they were 

 collected. "There's an overdoing of doing that sometimes proves an 

 undoing," and the matter of letting the foot grow so long that there is 

 nothing but dead horn to nail to is as bad as cutting the hoof off so 

 short there is danger of the nails pricking the quick. 



John R. Thompson, of Chicago, restaurateur, was represented by his 

 four familiar horses. Pride o' Prides and Oakwood, Ebony Girl and 

 Lovely Lady, and also by a new grey gelding that was secured from 

 Mat Biers at Mendota, 111. He is a horse that has raced some under the 

 name of Buster M., and is said to have a record of 2:20 and a fraction. 

 He made his only appearance in the four-in-hand class and looks to be 

 the making of a pretty high class show horse. These horses were in 

 charge of Edward White, and he did extremely well with them and 

 made a host of friends by his efficient horsemanship and pleasant man- 

 ner, taking his wins without undue exaltation and his losses without any 

 wrangling and unpleasant criticism, although in one or two classes he, 

 perhaps, had some grounds for questioning the entire justice of the 

 decisions. He had also in charge the handsome roan gelding. Jack Tar, 

 owned by William Daniel, and hitched him in with the others in making 

 up a four one afternoon. He was far in the lead as a blue ribbon winnner, 

 getting fifteen firsts, out of twenty-seven shows, and nine seconds. 

 Houchin & Anderson failed to make many harness shows, for some 

 reason. The well known Sporting Extra was shown once or twice, but 

 was not highly rated by the judges. From some accidental cause he has 

 lost practically all of the hair from his tail and the dock made a sorry 

 looking appearance, though he put up a couple of corking good shows. 

 Mrs. Champlain, of Ames, Iowa, had a pair that were attractive in appear- 

 ance, rivaling their owner in this respect, but, unfortunately, one of them 

 seemed to show a trifle lame and they were scarcely up to the excellence 

 of the Mooers and Thompson entries. 



In the pony division the chief rivals were Bunn, of Peoria, 111.; George 

 A. Heyl, of Washington, 111., and Mrs. Adam Stirling, of Des Moines, 

 Iowa. The showing of these animals was particularly strong and any 

 quantity of good ponies were constantly in evidence. Honors were 

 pretty evenly divided between them, Heyl getting the single champion- 

 ship, with King Larigo, and Bunn the pair event, with Grandee and 

 Ovilta. If any one thinks the partizanship for one's entries is confined 

 to saddle and harness horse owners and exhibitors, conversation with 

 the pony owners will prove that the former have no monopoly on the 

 commodity. 



Saddle horses were naturally a very strong feature of the show and 

 many of the best in America were in evidence. The following were the 

 leading exhibitors in either, or both three and five gaited classes: Houchin 



