188 TRAINING THE TR0TTI:NG HOKSE. 



years old, and the chances are not one in ten that the 

 latter will ever see the da}^ that he is the equal of his 

 trained brother, either in speed or in any of the 

 qualities that go to make a race-horse. He will not 

 onl}^ be uneducated, of untrained instinct and willful, 

 but he will be deficient in physical as well as mental 

 development, as compared with the trained one. Can 

 the lounger run, leap, or wrestle with the athlete whose 

 muscles have the substance, hardness and tone of long 

 and constant training ? 



If you ask me whether a great and straining effort 

 by a young colt will prove permanently detrimental, I 

 will answer, "As a rule, yes." We are all too anxious, 

 and many a colt has been a victim to the driver's 

 impatience to accomplish in a week what should not 

 have been attempted in two months. But, on the other 

 hand, you can train a colt, and, if exceedingly promis- 

 ing, you can give him a fast record without necessarily 

 requiring of him an exhausting effort. There is one 

 tiling I will endeavor to impress it upon the reader 

 here, and I will endeavor to impress it upon him again 

 and again. It is this : " Xever require of the colt more 

 than he can do within himself. Xever overdo the 

 work. Never carry him to the last inch of effort, to 

 the point of exhaustion, for at that point not only does 

 all development cease but you have probably undone 

 many weeks of work, and have, perhaps, inflicted per- 

 manent injury. The reader will not fail to appreciate 

 how delicate a thing the training of the young trotter 

 is. A happy medium must always be preserved — a 

 little misstep — a little error in judgment may bring all 

 your efforts to naught. If you do not cany it far 



