ADOPT A progra:mme. 217 



If you mean to trot the colt as a ^^earling you will 

 require to work him twice a day to make sure of the 

 best results. The lessons are short, but it is sharp, 

 speeding-making work ; and where one work-out a day 

 will be all a mature horse needs, you can give the colt a 

 number of fast brushes in the morning and again in the 

 afternoon without injury, provided the work is done 

 with judgment and never overdone. After exercise, all 

 young animals, as I have said, recover more quickly 

 than older ones. A good, stout colt can be judiciously 

 and advantageously worked twice a day until he is 

 about two years old, but remember the work must 

 never be allowed to tell on him. He must not lose 

 his stoutness, or what goes with it at this age, his 

 spirit and courage. At the first sign of track-weari- 

 ness you should ''letup." There can be nothing but 

 harm come of working a jaded, failing, track-sick and 

 spiritless colt. 



I cannot too strongly impress upon the reader who 

 seeks to profit by my experiences the importance of 

 care at the point at which we have now arrived with 

 regard to checking and balancing the young trotter, 

 upon w^hich greatly depends the purity of his gait. He 

 is just to begin his track- work, and it is very essential 

 that he begin it right. I hold that if your horse is not 

 trotting perfectly square, if there is any hitching or 

 roughness in his gait, or if he is in any way out of bal- 

 ance, he is not developing anything but faulty action, 

 and can certainly not develop speed. Let it be under- 

 stood at the outset that if you can get your horse in a 

 hitching and labormg way over a quarter in thirty-five 

 seconds, and your neighbor's colt can trot it in forty 



