134 TRAINING THE TKOTTING HORSE. 



trust, not be considered presumptuous in assuming that 

 I have had a rather better chance to form a correct 

 opinion of what class of trotter Manzanita really was 

 than the general public have had, and the estimate I 

 have given above of her qualitv is a conservative one. 

 If it errs at all it errs certainly not on the side of 

 flattery. 



Mayflower, the dam of Manzanita, "encumbered 

 with fore-shoes which weighed nearly two pounds each, 

 and with rolls of shot almost as ponderous on each 

 fore pastern, made a mile in 2:30^ " back in the days 

 when that was " about the top-notch in California." 

 Her first foal, by Electioneer, Avas May bell, the dam of 

 Maralia, 2:25 j- ; the second was the distinguished Wild- 

 flower, whose history has already been given, and the 

 third was Manzanita. She was foaled Februar}^ 2, 

 1882, and grew into a splendidly-made light bay mare, 

 about 15 hands high, with a well-cut head, a long, 

 nicely-shaped neck, heavy shoulders, lengthy barrel, 

 with a strong though rather straight back and stout, 

 muscular quarters; and her "traveling-gear" was good 

 from the ground up. 



Manzanita was broken in her yearhng form and 

 showed great promise on the miniature track. If it 

 w^as true that "lot-trotters" never amount to anything, 

 we should not have taken the trouble to train Man- 

 zanita, but we did not pa}^ anj^ more attention to such 

 " wise old saws " then than we do now. She kept on 

 improving until I left for the East in 1883, but on my 

 return the boys had a sorrowful story to tell about the 

 mare whose future we had all built hopes upon. They 

 assured me that she " was no good," that she " could 



