EAELY CAMPAIGNS. 99 



Governor Stanford asked me to repeat Occident, but 1 

 succeeded in having botli the horse and myself excused, 

 until he got over that attack of "the slows." 



Xow, however certain it seemed to me then that the 

 fault was all with the system, I now know that this 

 was not the true explanation of the lamentable tem- 

 porary degeneration in the speed of Abe Edgington 

 and Occident. The plan was all right, but I did'^not 

 know how to use it, and I gave the horses too much of 

 it. A man used to working horses mile heats natu- 

 rally does not think he is doing anything in quarter- 

 mile or furlong brushes, and in under-estimating the 

 amount of fast work I was really doing, the job was 

 overdone. An old horse, one that has been very 

 long trained, cannot, it must be remembered, stand 

 as much fast work as a young one can at the 

 gait he can go. A child can play until tired, and 

 after a little rest will be quite refreshed again, 

 where a man will tire and remain tired. You can 

 work a yearling colt twice a day to advantage, wlien 

 a similar system of irroixjrtionate work will stale a 

 mature horse. Once a horse develops a high rate of 

 speed, it must be remembered that he cannot stand as 

 much sharp work as one that has not reached high- 

 speeding capacity. So after I became more familiar 

 with training on the Palo Alto plan it was not neces- 

 sary for me to seek any explanation of the first unsuc- 

 cessful experiments, other than that I was working a 

 system that I did not understand, and did not know 

 how to apply with proper judgment. 



When Electioneer came to Palo Alto thirteen of the 

 get of Messenger Duroc came with him, and candor 



