OLD-TIME YOUNGSTERS. 183 



new processes are, and thouo^h some of the ideas that 

 Woodruff believed most firmly in are no longer ten- 

 able, his book can still be read with profit, for in the 

 record of what his experiences taught him are many 

 sterling truths of horsemanship. 



It is no part of my purpose to criticise the methods 

 or the opinions of others whose experience has given 

 them the right to speak with some degree of authority 

 on the subject of training. Every trainer has his own 

 ideas, his own peculiar methods, and his own reasons 

 for them. We can well learn from each other, and it 

 is therefore best that we should all be tolerant of the 

 opinions and practices of others. I shall therefore, in 

 the following chapters confine myself as closely as I 

 conveniently can to explaining our system of training 

 rather than criticising the methods of other trainers. 

 I do not counsel any trainer or breeder to discard 

 methods that he has found successful and substitute 

 ours; but what the methods I am to explain have 

 accomplished entitles them, in my judgment, at least, 

 to the careful consideration of all horsemen as an im- 

 proved system of training young horses to trot. 



The thoroughbred race-horse of this day is just about 

 as good at three years old as he ever is, but in the early 

 years of the racing breed it was not so. " In the days 

 of Flying Childers, Eclipse, Bay Malton, Gimcrack, 

 Mambrino, etc., the race-horses were not commonly 

 trained until they were five years old." So in Hiram 

 Woodruff's day the trotter was quite mature in years 

 before he was expected to show high capacity on the 

 turf, while in our day we expect great performances at 

 three and four years old, and often at two years old. 



