RHODE ISLAND. 401 



trotted several heats they would begin to tell on him, and that was the only- 

 place he ever showed a bit of tire in his life. He had a very fine disposition, 

 and was a very hearty eater. I used to feed him ten quarts of oats, and from 

 two to three quarts of corn when he was in training. He was a horse that 

 sweated very easily, and we hardly ever put any clothes on him, except a 

 short hood on his neck. He was a horse that needed considerable work so as- 

 to keep him in condition, for he would make fat very fast. Always two days 

 before a trot, I gave him a mile and repeat in from '30 to '35. That generally 

 took the wire edge off of him, so that he would n't be very rank the day of the 

 race, otherwise he was hot-headed. He was a terrible horse to go away from 

 the score, but he did n't pull an ounce on the bits after he got started, and got 

 fairly agoing. I used a very large snaffle-bit on him, for he had a verj^ wide 

 mouth, and always drove him in an open bridle. He wore no boots except 

 on his hind ankles, to protect him from a habit he had of just touching him- 

 self in the joint, just a kind of speedy cut on his shin. He wore a shoe 

 weighing a pound and three ounces on his forward feet, and, when taking hia 

 work, a pound and five ounces on his hind feet, but when going in a race I used 

 to change the hind shoes to nine ounces. 



The first race I drove him in was October 1, 1867, when he beat Leviathan 

 in three straight heats in 2:36, 2:Siy.2, 2:34. Just before we went to Buflalo 

 I timed Rhode Island on the Fashion track, mile and repeat. The first mile 

 he -nent in 2:22^4^, and repeated it in 2:20i^. At the same time we timed 

 Fearnaught in 2:24, and repeated him in 2:21i4. 



On the 27tli of October, 1868, 1 trotted Rhode Island on the Fashion Course, 

 against American Girl and George Wilkes. In that race he was a very fat 

 horse ; he was seventy-five pounds too heavy to trot. The first heat he took in 

 2:25. John Lovett drove American Girl, I believe. I think I took the lead 

 from the start, and. In fact, I don't think I was headed in the first or second 

 heats. In the third heat my horse broke, and lost it. The second heat was 

 trotted in 2 :23^. He tired a little in the third heat, and kept on tiring after 

 that, for he was too fat to trot. I thinl< Rhode Island was too large for a 

 successful campaigner on the track. About I5I4 hands is a good height for a 

 trotter; and the weight should be from 750 to 850 pounds, in my opinion. 

 Hopeful weighed 882 pounds when he trotted his great race at Hartford this 

 season. Sensation about the same. Lady Litchfield weighed, in trotting con- 

 dition, 745 pounds ; Nellie Walton weighed 825 pounds in trotting fix ; Orient 

 weighed 977 pounds at Hartford ; and these are fair averages for the best trot- 

 ters. Rhode Island was too heavy in his body for his hind ankles. He had 

 as good a leg as any horse above his hock, but he stood back on his ankles 

 like a running horse, and he would always tremble in his ankles after a heat. 

 He was a good horse in a race for three or four heats — as far as he could go. 

 If he wasn't over-matched he would go four good heats, and hold out well. 



Rhode Island died at the age of eighteen years, from, a sudden 

 attack of acute inflammation of the bowels, but was regarded as in 

 the prime of life and vigor at the time of the fatal attack. He has 

 elsewhere been described as a compact and evenly built horse, of 



