LIFE WITH THE TROTTERS. 351 



where Mr. Baker came to me and asked me to get behind 

 him the last heat in a race, which I did, where he finished 

 last in a large field of horses, a place I had noticed lie always 

 occupied in every race in which I had ever seen him started. 

 Although finishing last, Calmar showed me so much speed 

 in this heat that he interested me, and after the race 

 was over I made an arrangement with Mr. Baker to train 

 and drive him the balance of the season. On examination 

 I found that he wore shin boots and scalpers behind, both 

 of which he hit very hard. His hind feet were long and 

 his ankles very much swollen. The first time I drove him 

 in his work I learned that he hit himself very hard, when he 

 did was sure to break, and the minute you took hold of the 

 bit to steady him, he would commence to buck. But when 

 he did trot he could step a good 2:20 gait without api)arent 

 effort. As few people realize what it will do to a horse to 

 have him continually hitting himself, even though you have 

 boots on him, I will describe exactly how I shod this horse, 

 why I did so, and what effect it had on him. 



At that time Mace had in his employ a man of the name 

 of George Staples as a blacksmith, whose turf name, I believe, 

 was " Blacksmith George " and to whom Mace willed his 

 blacksmith shop and other j^roperty of that description at 

 the time of his death, and StaiDles is still, I believe, the pro- 

 prietor of the same in Fifty-eighth street, New York City. I 

 stated to Staples the facts about Calmar as I had learned 

 them, showed him the boots where the horse had hit them, and 

 then we decided on the following plan of shoeing him. We 

 shortened his liind feet all that we x^ossibly could, my idea 

 being that there would be less strain on his ankles if they 

 were made short than if we left them long. I had a calked 

 shoe made that weighed twelve ounces, made it the longest 

 on the outside so as to carry Calmar' s hind feet outside of 

 his forward ones when in motion, set his heels well up, as I 

 had learned by experience it was a good thing to do with a 

 horse that had ailing ankles. This idea I obtained from 

 Dr. Roberge, a man of unlimited resourses in shoeing a 



