406 LIFE WITH THE TROTTERS. 



are now taught to drive with ^ very light pressure of the bit. 

 Dexter was in no sense a puller, although he would take 

 hold well and it was from this habit that he was so liable 

 to sore mouth, which was one' of the things that troubled 

 him more or less during his entire trotting career. 



As to how we rigged him, it should be remembered that 

 in those days the manufacture of horseboots was in its 

 infancy. All that Dexter wore in that line were invented 

 and for the most part manufactured by his rubber, Peter 

 Conover, a man to whom a great deal of the credit of Dex- 

 ter' s excellent condition was always due. He wore a knee 

 boot on Dexter s near forward leg, a pair of speedy cut boots 

 behind, and a Y)air of old-fashioned bell-pattern quarter boots. 

 These boots Dexter wore in his races and work, but of the 

 latter it was necessary to give him very little. Although a 

 horse of fine physical organization and a good feeder, he did 

 not make liesh fast, being so nervous and irritable that he 

 was constantly on the move when nobody was about and 

 seemed by tijis means to keep himself from getting gross. 

 During the trotting season all the work Dexter received 

 besides his races was a light repeat every week, and these 

 miles were generally in from 2:28 to 2:30 — that being as 

 slow in fact as I could make him to go without getting him 

 to pulling and fretting. When it came to his jogging I 

 always let Conover do that for the reason that Dexter, who 

 was a horse of a great deal of intelligence, soon learned to 

 know me and his idea was that when I got into the sulky 

 it meant for work, and whenever I would try to jog him he 

 would pull, and lug and fret so much that it was hard work 

 on me and did him more harm than good. 



Omitting any detailed mention of the races which Dexter 

 trotted for me during the season of 1866, it may be said that 

 I was successful and at the close of the year I had reduced 

 his record in harness to 2:21 and ridden him a mile in 2:18, 

 which was the fastest that a trotter had gone, any way 

 rigged. As to the famous trial against the watch at Buffalo 

 in 1867, when he showed himself, by trotting a mile in 2 :17J, 



