42 HAY SEED, OR HOW TO 



the mile out from 2 to 5 seconds faster than they 

 could without them. There are a dozen different styles 

 of toe weights that have, as claimed by their respective 

 inventors, their advantages, and of their usefulness in 

 many cases there is no question, and I might add that 

 they are indispensable as part of your outfit as a trotting 

 horse trainer. In the development of speed in horses 

 that are mixed gaited, by this I mean horses that cannot 

 either pace or trot squarely, weights will always have to 

 be resorted to, if you desire to square them and save time 

 in doing so. The application of a 4 or 6 ounce weight to 

 each hind foot, on the outside, has the effect of opening 

 their gait behind and thereby improving the way of go- 

 ing. 



A trotter that puts one hind foot past his front foot on 

 the outside, but carries the other hind foot in line with the 

 front one on the same side is something very annoying to a 

 trainer. The foot that does not go out where it ought to 

 is ordinarily shod v/ith a shoe twice as heavy on the out- 

 side as on the inside, and sometimes a side weight is 

 used, and there are cases where the reverse has been re- 

 sorted to with success This is accounted for by some 

 men as sympathetic. The mare Adelaide by Phil Sheri- 

 dan, placed one hind foot between her front ones inst'^ad 

 of going outside with l^of/i hind feet. She could go very 

 fast and got a record of 2-19^ this way of going, but 

 these examples are rare. r.Iany experiments will have to 

 be resorted to in order to gait some horses properly, while 

 others are the poetry or motion. If you have a horse 

 that uses one hind leg properly and swings the other in 

 line with his front foot, if a side weight or a shoe with 

 the weight in the outside half doesn't have the desired 

 effect, reverse the matter and shoe that foot light, with an 

 ordinary shoe, and shoe the foot that is carried properly, 

 same as you have previously shod the other, and use a 

 side weight also. This has had the effect in some cases, 

 of inducing the horse to carry both legs properly. Many 

 experiments have to be resorted to, in order to get some 

 horses to go square. 



