134 EOAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



which lie thought necessary. Her record was 2.29^. 

 One day, at his request, John Splan drove the mare, 

 and by the simple device of letting out the check rein 

 a few holes, Mr. Splan reduced her record to 2.24^. 



" Any one," he says, " could have driven the mare 

 the same mile, as she was very steady, and it required 

 no particular skill to manage her. She simply wanted 

 to be properly harnessed. It is just as easy to choke 

 a horse by checking him too high, and forcing the 

 tongue back into the entrance of the throat, as it 

 would be in any other way. I have seen one or two 

 horses die in harness that I am sure were choked to 

 death." 1 



The horse should never be checked on the driving 

 bit, for this practice tends to spoil his mouth. Even 

 when a side check is used, it should be attached to a 

 small rubber or leather-covered flexible bit, not con- 

 nected in any way with the driving bit. This ar- 

 rangement is an uncommon one, but I have tested 

 it thoroughly, and am convinced of its superiority. 



Of course, when a horse has the weight of a carriage 

 to draw, the discomfort of a check rein too short is 

 greatly increased. Splan says : " I think that, as a 

 rule, road horses are checked entirely too high. To 

 place a horse's head in that position, and then ask him 

 to pull five hundred pounds of weight at a high rate 

 of speed, is wrong. The horse is not only uncomfort- 



1 I quote from the instructive work " Life with the Trotters," to 

 which I have referred in a previous chapter. Mr. Splan is a horse- 

 man of great acuteness, and as a driver cool, resolute, and full of 

 resource. A man of much experience on the track once remarked, 

 " If a horse were going to trot for my life I should like to have him 

 conditioned by Budd Doble and driven by John Splan." 



