94 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



has the required combination of sympathy and force, 

 the trotter is quick to recognize his master and ready 

 to obey him. 



"One half of a horse's speed," wrote Mr. George 

 Wilkes, "is in the mind of his rider or driver. 

 When it is known to the world that a horse has 

 made a mile a second or half-second faster than it 

 was ever made before, some rider of some other 

 horse, nerving himself with the knowledge of the 

 fact, and infusing that knowledge into his horse by 

 dint of his own enthusiasm, sends him a second or 

 two faster still; and the result of the mental emu- 

 lation is a permanent improvement which never is 

 retraced. Hiram Woodruff was the first to take this 

 mental grip of the powers of the trottiug horse; and 

 the result in his case was, that, by dint of his own 

 mind, he carried him triumphantly over the gap 

 which lies between 2.40 and 2.18." 



"Dan Mace," said Woodruff himself, speaking of 

 another famous reinsman, now dead, "is very reso- 

 lute, and the horses that he handles know it." 



To drive a trotter with art is, first, to get from 

 him the highest speed of which he is capable; 

 secondly, to keep him from making a break; and, 

 thirdly, to bring him back to the trot with as little 

 loss as possible after a break has actually occurred. 

 To do this well requires a light and "sensational" 

 hand, a sympathetic intelligence, and a vast deal of 

 practice. The break is prevented, sometimes by 

 restraining the animal with voice and rein, when it 

 is simply a case of too much eagerness, but more 

 often by moving the bit in his mouth. If the break 

 happens, the horse "leaving his feet," as the phrase 



