FITTING FOR SHOW. 135 



and, remembering what Sherman said about 

 war, fight accordingly. If he does not watch 

 out he will find the cards stacked against him 

 and dealt to him from the top, middle and bot- 

 tom of the deck. At that, more than half the 

 cry of fraud and favoritism in the show ring 

 which has gone up from disappointed exhibitors 

 has lacked justification in fact. The really neat 

 jobs have slid through so beautifully that they 

 have hardly ever been even suspected, certainly 

 not detected until long after they were put 

 through. All of which nails down the unalter- 

 able fact that the exhibitor must watch out or 

 the goblins will get him. 



Fitting horses for show is an easy enough 

 process, albeit one that is fraught with much 

 likelihood of trouble if it is not properly done. 

 The hard part of it all is to pick out the winner 

 in the rough. The better the judge the more 

 surely will he select a thin colt to make a winner 

 when fitted, but the best will go wrong half the 

 time or more. A breeder who lets his young 

 stock get down poor has all these chances to 

 take. He would better keep them in condition 

 and so know more about them. There is no 

 reason why a breeder should not show his horses 

 from foalhood to maturity. The cumulative in- 

 fluence of such success is priceless. Foals and 

 yearlings should be the main reliance of the 

 breeder in the show ring, rather than his 

 matured stallions. Therefore we begin with the 



