208 TRAINING THE TROTTING HORSE. 



a style of trotting that will never be of any use to nim 

 on the track? Let him learn something he is going to 

 do, in the way he is going to do it, rather than m the 

 way he is not going to do it. I believe the action of a 

 great many good colts has been spoiled, and the 

 natural smoothness and balance destroyed by this 

 3^anking around with a runner. Kemember that bal- 

 ance is a very delicate thing. Suppose you are running 

 at full speed, and your head is suddenly drawn to one 

 side, do you think the stroke can be maintained true 

 and even ? Xot at all. So this systematic unbalancing 

 of the colt cannot fail to work injury. The theory, of 

 course, is that the colt goes ahead of the horse, but 

 will any man who watches this style of training for 

 an hour tell me that this theory is strictly followed, or 

 can be strictly followed, in practice ? If it is I have 

 never seen it. The colt's head is hauled and jerked 

 this way and that ; now he is going too fast and is 

 pulled back ; again he is going too slow and is towed by 

 the head ; then he goes too far out on the turns and 

 his head is yanked around sideways ; next he goes too 

 close and is jostled b}^ the runner. I prefer to let a 

 colt go in his own way, balancing and striding 

 naturally, and holding his head in its natural position. 

 You ask what the special advantages of work in the 

 miniature track are. It educates the colt to stick to 

 the trot, and to make that his natural order of loco- 

 motion. He learns that trotting is what he is Avanted 

 to do, and he learns to do it well. The first education 

 of his life is in trotting, and it grows upon him with 

 his age. He has to rely upon himself, for he does what 

 he does of himself, and without assistance. His 



