THE SIRE OF OCCIDENT. 109 



Occident's dam was a little bay mare, not quite 15 

 hands high, that came probably from Lower California. 

 Occident had the usual life of a scrub with more than 

 the usual hardships, until when he was three or four 

 years old he in some way got into a '-scrub race" and 

 won it. Then a man named Eldred bef^-an traininor- 

 him, and with such good results that he became quite 

 a sensation. Finally, Governor Stanford paid about 

 $5,000 for him, and he had gone so fast that his first 

 race was against no less a competitor than Goldsmith 

 Maid. This was in October, 1872, and the Maid 

 won in straight heats. Xext he tried conclusions with 

 old Lucy, at San Francisco, and she distanced him in 

 2:20 in the second heat. The fastest heat that had ever 

 been trotted up to this time was 2:17^, made by Gold- 

 smith Maid when she defeated Lucy in September, 

 1872. In 1873 the California State Fair offered a 

 valuable piece of plate for Occident to beat this record, 

 and at the Fair at Sacramento, September 17, 1873, he 

 broke that record, trotting the mile in 2:16|. The next 

 year he was beaten by Sam Purdy, but later beat 

 Judge Fullerton, trotting the second heat of his race 

 in 2:18. Then he was taken East by Budd Doble, but 

 never started, owing to trouble with his feet. Doble 

 "Dunbared" his feet, which process consists in cutting 

 down- the foot, sole, and frog, and shoeing with the 

 shoe nailed well back on the heel, after Avhich a 

 ^'spreader," with spreading screws, is put in. He was 

 brought back, and, after a long vacation, came into my 

 hands in 1878, and won another good race against 

 Judge Fullerton, as related in the last chapter. 



Occident was a mixed gaited horse, and would amble 



