Calif ORNiAN Coaching. 389 



These 'congresses' are nothing else than race meetings for 

 trotters, held at seven places — to wit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, Utica, Poughkeepsie, 

 Hartford, and Springfield. During last summer there were seven animals which graduated 

 in the first class. Their names and order of merit were as follows — Goldsmith Maid, Smuggler, 

 Lula, Cozette, Great Eastern, Amy B., and Albemarle. Their averages range between 2.17, 

 which is that of Goldsmith Maid and Smuggler, down to 2.20, which is that of Amy B. and 

 Albemarle. The fastest heat or 'best record' made during the 'septilateral circuit' was 

 that of Goldsmith Maid, who did her mile in 2. 1 5, and that of Smuggler, who has 2.1 5i 

 appended to his name." 



Woodruff is never tired of dilating on the merits of the descendants of imported Messenger 

 (the son of Lord Grosvenor's grey Mambrino), who covered in the United States for nearly 

 twenty seasons. Mambrino was a very moderate racehorse. 



Besides matches and races in single harness, and pairs against pairs, the Americans some- 

 times put a fast trotter in a four-wheeled racing wagon, "with a mate;" the mate galloping 

 and drawing the vehicle ; the trotter, relieved of the weight and stimulated by the com- 

 panionship, trotting alongside faster than his best pace alone in single harness. 



As coachmen over a rough country the Americans are not to be excelled, if equalled. 



"I have," says Major Sir Rose Price, "had a good deal of coaching during my life in 

 Ireland and Wales before railroad days, and in many foreign lands, but I never saw men 

 handle the ribands like the Californian drivers. 



" Their teams, nearly always consisting of six horses, are as well turned out, with regard 

 to size, pace, and condition, as any four-in-hand one sees in the Park during the London 

 season. Of course I do not allude to the appointments and harness, which are rough and 

 homely enough, or even the grooming. 



" The roads are simply frightful, often hanging over the edge of a precipice, constantly 

 crossing at this time of the year the dried-up bed of a river paved with boulders, or going 

 down a declivity many fellows would funk at out hunting. 



"They have no guard or any one to assist them, but make the brake themselves, and go 

 full spin round corners sharp enough to hide the leaders, avoid bad ruts in the most extra- 

 ordinary manner, have less accidents, and get more out of their horses, keeping them at the 

 same time in perfect condition, than any men in the world. These men I consider the finest 

 whips in the world, and it is worth coming all the way to California if only to learn what 

 coaching really is. 



"A team of five horses, leaders harnessed, three abreast, with brake hard on at full 

 trot over such ground, a man should have a nerve of iron, a hand of steel, and the eye of a 

 hawk."* 



DRIVING THREE ABREAST. 



Driving three abreast is common in Russia and Hungary, but seldom practised in this 

 country except in omnibuses. Where the roads are wide enough it is, as already observed, a 

 capital plan for breaking in a high-spirited and timid horse, either by placing him in the 

 centre in shafts between two old stagers attached to the outriggers of a two-wheeled carriage, 

 or as one of the outside horses, with no weight to pull, of a four-wheeled carriage. Oc- 

 casional examples are met with of park phaetons driven with three ponies abreast. 



The best English coachman would find himself quite helpless with three fiery Russian 



» "The Two Americas." By Sir Rose Price, Bart. 



