184 APPENDIX. 



them) take a horse to train for any price, from fifteen 

 dollars per month up. Take the horse, feed him about 

 a ])eck of wheat bran, to every quart of oats, and a 

 little hay — that no animal but a goat ought to eat — and 

 you will go oat, in a couple of weeks, to see how the 

 horse is getting along. There is something out of joint 

 when yoii come, and they can't hitch him that day for 

 you, but will tell you, to come out in a week from that 

 time, and they will astonish you; come at a certain hour. 

 You go out at the appointed time, and Mr. Man will not 

 be there ; he had to go away. You bother in this way 

 for three or four weeks. In the meantime your horse 

 has got thin in flesh and weak from starvation ; cannot 

 of course show any speed ; you get disgusted, think 

 perhaps you got cheated, when you bought him, and 

 finally sell him at a loss, and retire from the business 

 of picking out trotters for a time. 



This same horse passes into other hands, gets a chance 

 to pick up some flesh ; owner knows how to use him — 

 perhaps has read " Hayseed " with a view of learning 

 something last season and has developed into something 

 of a horseman. You tackle him on the road, some day, 

 with your best horse, thinking you will have an easy 

 victory over your cast-ofl" purchase, when he downs you 

 easy^ and you begin to realize there is as much differ- 

 ence in the treatment of horses as there is in horses. 



You catch one of these " two -for -Jive " trainers feeding 

 nearly all wheat bran, two, or three times in succession, 

 and remonstrate with him about it, he will tell you he 

 don't propose to let his horses get burnt up ; and you ask 

 him if grass would not be a preventive against the 

 burning process, and he will probably tell you that he 

 would rather give them bran, than take the chances of 

 their dying with the colic. Many of this class of train- 

 ers, keep on fooling owners from year, to year, and make 

 money, by cheating the horses out of the feed they are 

 entitled to, and should have, and you will often hear it 

 remarked of this class, that they are careful men, and 

 will not over-drive or hurt a horse, which is usually 

 true, for they know that the system of diet, they subject 



