THE TROTTING-HORSE OF AMERICA. 203 



and must always be of great use in similar ones; but I 

 think it is often applied in cases where it is not only un- 

 necessary, but does harm instead of good. The stallion was 

 yet wild and uncertain, though capable of fine speed and 

 up to great weight. A stake was opened for a race of three- 

 mile heats, to wagons of two hundred and fifty pounds, 

 which, with the weight of the drivers, a hundred and forty- 

 five, \vould make at least three hundred and ninety-five pounds 

 to pull. It was to be trotted on the Union Course on the 

 1st of June, 1853, to be $500 each, and the course to add 

 $ 1,000. Six entered; the five competitors we had to look 

 to meet being O'Blenis, Boston Girl, Pet, lola, and Honest 

 John. This was goodly company. 



O'Blenis was a bay gelding by Abdallah, got when that 

 famous old horse was in Kentucky. He was sixteen hands 

 high, and an uncommon good, game horse. He was a long 

 strider ; but for all that was up to weight, could pull it at a 

 great rate, go a long distance, and stay heats. This charac- 

 ter, and he deserved it all, made him the favorite against 

 the field for the stake. George Abrahams trained and 

 drove him. Boston Girl was a bay mare, fifteen hands two 

 inches. I do not know her pedigree. Fish & Raymond 

 owned her. She was a strong mare, with fine, bold action, 

 and a desperate hard puller. John Nelson trained and 

 drove her. Pet was a bay gelding, about fifteen hands and 

 an inch. He was a finely-turned horse, well made, and a 

 very handsome, square trotter. Henry Jones had him. 

 lola was a brown mare, sixteen hands high. She was rangy 

 and blocklike in appearance, with fine trotting action. 

 Charles Brooks drove her. Honest John was a bay gelding, 

 with fine white legs and a narrow stripe on the face. He 

 was sixteen hands high, and a fine, rangy-going horse. 

 George Spicer had him, and drove him in the race. It closed 

 about five weeks before the day of trotting ; and long before 

 that time I had got Kemble steadier, and he had gradually 



