174 PERGONAL EXPERIENCED 



or ever knew there was any body traveling in the 

 business of "Horse Training," when one day, while 

 calling on a friend, I happened to see alDOok on Horse 

 Training. I immediately procured a copy of it, and 

 studied the subject with renewed zeal. A few months 

 later I saw a book advertised in a newspaper, which I 

 sent for at once, and made inquiry and searched for 

 other books that might be printed on the subject; 

 but to my surprise tliese were the only books that I 

 could find pertaining to Horse Training that were 

 worth looking at. Neither did I have an opportunity of 

 taking instructions under any Horseman, except at one 

 public exhibition at Dayton, 0. I went twentj'-five 

 miles to attend one of his evening exhibitions. With 

 this slight exception I had to get all my knowledge 

 through hard experience. Of course I got some very 

 good theories from these books, but theor}- is not 

 practice. Some of the first horses that I took to break 

 were bad dispositioned colts and Texas ponies, (as I 

 was just commencing to study and work in my new 

 profession, I had to accept such horses as were brought 

 •to me for training,) and some of them were the very 

 worst ponies in the country. 



You will never know the narrow escapes, experien- 

 ces and hardships that I went through with, in hand- 

 ling these ponies, unless you would go through with 

 them yourself. At this time I had no books to get 

 ideas from, nor any appliances by which to take ad- 

 vantage of a horse. I will have to admit I did a great 

 deal of mv work through main strength and awkward- 



