32 HAY SEED, OR HOW TO 



CHAPTER IX. 



WATCHFULNESS NOW THE ORDER OF THE DAY. 



Your trotter now being on the high road to the object 

 of your ambition, viz, to beat 2:30, you want to see that 

 he gains in speed and style of going, and if you are train- 

 ing in the vicinity of a track you will have opportunities 

 to see how he likes company, and you should try and 

 get him used to it. You want to take care he doesn't take 

 on too much flesh, if he is a hardy horse, and also you 

 don't want to over-work him. By reference to the article 

 on sweating, you will learn by noticing the inspirations 

 and expirations of air to and from his lungs when pulled 

 up after fast work, and how he does it; how he is pro- 

 gressing in his training in respect to his internal organs. 

 If he ^" blows out" forcibly after fast work and fatiguing 

 exercise, and recovers rapidly, it is fair to assume that he 

 is doing well. As a horse approaches racing condition, 

 the quicker and more completely does he recover from 

 exhaustion in a short space of time. Your judgment 

 must continually guide you now ; once a week is often 

 enough, ordinarily, tor a horse to have fast work. You 

 had better save him some and let him trot himself into 

 condition than to have him right on edge the first race 

 you start in. 



If you contemplate giving your horse only one race 

 and then laying him out of work, that is a different affair 

 from trotting through half a dozen meetiuLS. and in 

 that case should be on edge if you expect him to distin- 

 guish^imself, for it is exceedingly rare for a green horse 

 and a green driver to win their first race, unless they lay 

 over the rest of the entries in speed by several seconds, 

 and then, if you have the most speed, some man may out 

 drive you. 



