218 TRAINING THE TROTTING HORSE. 



seconds, square and smooth, his footfalls marking time 

 as trul}^ as the tick of the most perfect chronometer, he 

 is doing far better than you are, and in calculating on 

 the basis of a quarter in thirty-five seconds you are 

 only deceiving yourself. It is not what he can do in 

 any irregular, jerky, scrambling way that 3^ou must 

 judge by. It is idiat lie can do rigid. 



Let me illustrate. There was a certain colt at Palo 

 Alto that showed remarkably well in the paddock, but 

 after Ave got him in harness we found that he could not 

 show a trace of respectable speed. I drove him one day 

 and found he could not trot a three-minute gait, do what 

 I would with him. After vain and discouraging work I 

 gave him up for that day, thinking that, perhaps, he 

 was out of humor and sulk\^, and a little tired. The 

 next day I tried him again, but with no better results. 

 Then I was in a quandary, and whistled a tune while I 

 thouo-ht it over. I knew he was a trotter in the 

 miniature track, and it was just as clear that he was 

 not one in harness. So I unhitched him and turned 

 him into the miniature track, and away he went as well 

 as ever. A little study showed hoAV he carried his 

 head and how he balanced himself. I changed the 

 check, harnessed him again, let his head free 

 so that he could carry himself in his own way, 

 and that same day he showed me a quarter in 

 better than forty seconds. In studying how he 

 trotted without harness I ''went back to first prin- 

 ciples," and, in this return to nature, found the 

 little causes that produced such important results. 

 I might have gone on experimenting until doomsday 

 with weights and shoes and I could never have gotten 



