THE TROTTING-IIORSE OF AMERICA 173 



had had him some two months, and it was in summer time 

 when I trotted him over the Beacon Course, two-mile heats, 

 under saddle, against Mr. James McMann's Don Juan. 

 The Don was a handsome chestnut gelding, fifteen hands 

 two inches high, a stylish and fine-going horse. We got 

 the start for the first heat. Ripton took the lead, was 

 never headed, and won it with great ease in 5m. 19s. It 

 seemed so certain, that the spectators thought he could not 

 lose it, and odds of 100 to 5 were currently offered and laid. 

 I remember the circumstances well, not only from the fact 

 that it was the first time I had ever seen as much odds laid 

 between two horses, but from the unexpected termination 

 of the race. In the second heat I took the lead again, and 

 it seemed all my own for a mile and a half. I then felt 

 llipton going to nothing between my knees. McMann and 

 Don Juan passed us, and the latter won it handily in 5m. 

 33s. Ripton was much distressed ; and, believing that he 

 had no chance to win, I drew him. 



ISTow, this was a case showing the absolute necessity for a 

 good deal of work and practice as a trotter to enable a horse 

 to endure through two two-mile heats. Ripton was a horse 

 past the age of constitutional maturity ; he was well in 

 health, apparently in good bodily condition, and he was a 

 game and stout horse; but he had never been trotted much, 

 and lacked the practice and seasoning which braces and har- 

 dens the muscles, and enables the animal to endure. He 

 was just like a horse trained over the flat for a steeple-chase, 

 which always tires, no matter how good his bodily condition 

 may be, from the fact that the muscles which have to be 

 violently exerted when he rises in his leaps have had no 

 practice of that sort. It was a case which made a marked 

 impression upon me at the time, audi afterwards found that 

 the conclusions I had come to in regard to it were correct; 

 Ripton was noted afterwards for his game and bottom, and 

 also for requiring a great deal of work to bring him out fit 

 for one of his best performances. 



