176 TRAINING THE TROTTING HORSE. 



For a good while after she came into my stable we 

 could count upon an hour's time as the average dura- 

 tion of the process of hitching Sunol to a sulky. Not 

 that she was exactly vicious, but she had and has a 

 will, a temper and a determination of her own, and 

 at that time every individual hair seemed to contain 

 a nerve. 



I worked her very carefully through the winter of 

 1887-88, stepping her fast for a short distance every 

 other day or two. I strove to " gentle " her and never 

 to do anything to make her dislike her exercise and 

 work on the track. After she began going fast I 

 would usually take her first to the back-stretch, where 

 there was less to disturb and annoy her than on the 

 stretch near the stables; and, after working there 

 about long enough, I would step her around and down 

 the stretch at the rate of about 0:35 to the quarter. I 

 never would drive over half a mile fast at one brush, 

 and, generally, the brushes were nearer a quarter than 

 a half. This system of Avork continued until July, 

 when we shipped to Los Angeles, where she was 

 entered in a two-year-old race to be trotted August 5th. 

 We arrived at Los Angeles about July 20th, and up till 

 this time Sunol had never been driven a mile at 

 speed in her life. Four days before the race I gave 

 her a full mile in 2:40^, which was her first work at 

 a mile, although, as I have remarked, she had before 

 this shown me the ability to speed at a 2:20 gait. 

 I repeated her in 2:38. The next day she was 

 merely exercised, and the second day before the race 

 I gave her another mile and repeat in 2:36 and 

 2:33^^. In the race her only opponent Avas Hon. L. J. 



