446 LIFE WITH THE TROTTEES. 



anything it was fair to ask a horse to do, if he could arrange 

 to do it exactly his own way, and I was hapi)ily situated to 

 handle him. I also had the time to humor him, as the owner 

 did not want him to start in races until the next year. Guy 

 had a great aversion to going on a track, and acted disgusted 

 at the sight of one; still I never could learn he had been 

 overworked or overdriven. On the contrary it was said his 

 work had always been short; fast quarters and sometimes a 

 half. I used him on the road all through the month of May, 

 both single and double. When he was hitched to road cart 

 and having driven five or six miles about the country, I 

 would then drive in onto the track, and around once or 

 twice, being careful to keep him from speeding; although 

 it was always the uppermost thing in his mind, when he got 

 to the track, to grab the bit and go. He seemed to have 

 learned that was the game. Somehow or other he had 

 got a wrong imi^ression of what was wanted of him. 

 He never acted badly with me, for the same reason that 

 " Jack did not eat his supper" ; I would not give him a 

 chance. 



I had no engagements for Guy so I worked him with the 

 sole object of getting him over his idiosyncrasy (more com- 

 monly calleJ by horsemen ''bees in his bonnet"). I think 

 my plan would have succeeded, as he constantly improved. 

 But thinking he would go well to pole with Clingstone I 

 trained them for a double team, giving them a pole record 

 of 2:17, which mile could have been done in 2:15 with the 

 circumstances all favorable. The second heat was 2:17^ and 

 while cooling out for the last heat a slight shower of rain 

 fell, which moistened the track enough to make the mud 

 fly, causing Guy to take too much hold of the bit, and trot 

 overfast for Clingstone in places. I never had a good 

 opportunity to beat 2:17 with them again, as after this per- 

 formance we had offers to exhibit them at different points 

 in the grand circuit, the first place being at Hartford. 

 Arrangements were deferred until the time to show them 

 was so close at hand that the team was not shipped from 



