LIFE AVITII THE 'IKOTTERS. 159 



and won some races with her, I thoiiglit her, on the whole, 

 rather unsatisfactory. I drove her a trial over the Cleveland 

 track, in 2:15^, won a heat, and made a record for her of 

 2:17, in a $10,000 purse, but got beaten a good many slow 

 and unsatisfactory races, sometimes not as fast as 2:20. At 

 the end of the season, I took her to Cincinnati, at the same 

 time I did Johnston. I made up my mind that tliere could 

 be a great deal of improvement made in the way of training 

 and driving her, and made a study of it through the cold 

 months. I wintered her about the same as Johnston, the 

 only diiference being in the feed. I gave her a little less to 

 eat and more work, she being a very strong and robust mare, 

 with a disposition to put on a good deal of flesh. When the 

 spring arrived I commenced to woi'k her. She had ahvays 

 been driven, l^efore I got her, with an over-check and no 

 martingales. At tliis time she was rather slow to score, and 

 if you pulled her out after a horse and she could not rush 

 by in an instant, she would be almost sure to break. I told 

 Mr. Woodmansee that, if she could not be broken of all these 

 habits (as she was in a class where she must not only be able 

 to trot fast but also behave herself well to get any of the 

 money), it would be better to give up trying to make a trotter 

 of her. 



Almost everyone thinks a trotting horse ought to be 

 driven with an over-check, a mistake that 1 have often made 

 myself. In talking to Orrin Hickok about this peculiar 

 mare, he suggested that she be tried with a side-check and 

 an overdraw bit. I concluded to try the plan, he telling me 

 at the time that that was the first arrangement he could drive 

 St. Julien with. I gave Witherspoon thirty days' work on the 

 road to a cart with this arrangement. I then put a ha Iter on 

 lier, or what is better known as a halter with a standing mar- 

 tingale, and fastened the martingale under the giitli so as to 

 draw her head down; kept letting her check out, aud short- 

 ened the martingale by degrees till I got her head on about a 

 level with her back. I drove her with an easy, covered bit, 

 and a nose baud. After giving her six weeks' work on the 



