158 LIFE WITH THE TKOTTEKS. 



trainer, and what took place that afternoon has seemed, both 

 to myself and m}' friends, as the best exhibition of training 

 and driving that I ever gave, as it included the tlriving of 

 a pacer n mile in 2:(>0J, in single harness, unaccompanied 

 by a runner or other incentive to effort; the reducing of 

 Fanny Witherspoon's record to 2:1 G^, and driving the X)acing 

 mare, Minnie R., a mile in double harness, with a running- 

 mate, in 2:03|; and, from the fact that these three events 

 were so closely associated, all the horses being owned by the 

 one man, and all having been trained and driven by me, I 

 think this an appropriate place in which to say- something 

 concerning the other two animals: 



Fanny Withersi^oon was a handsome chestnut mare, six- 

 teen hands high, very rangy looking, with the grandest set of 

 feet and legs that one could well imagine. She commenced her 

 turf career when a colt, having been trained to trot, I think, as 

 a two-year-old. In her younger days, she did not give much 

 promise of the speed that afterward made her famous. She 

 passed through a number of different trainers' hands, and 

 was finally sold to Commodore Kittson, and was in his stable 

 when I took charge of it, in 1882. At that time she had a 

 disposition to be a rather unsteady, disagreeable mare, a 

 fact which she proved to me beyond a doubt after I com- 

 menced to train her. She seemed to have a great deal of 

 speed, but not the least idea of being driven. She wanted 

 to do everything when and where she liked. The effect of 

 her natural disposition and of having had her own way 

 was something that it was rather difficult to overcome. I do 

 not say this with any disrespect to any of the gentlemen who 

 drove her, because I think that no one man had Fanny long- 

 enough to give her what she really needed — a thoroughly 

 good schooling. I think that a great many horses are spoiled, 

 because their trainers do not have a chance at them, from 

 the fact that they keep them one season, which is just about 

 long enough to learn what to do with them, and this mare, 

 I think, proved it. The first year I had her, while she showed 

 me a great deal of speed, and I drove her some good heats 



