i:mitation. 223 



tageously followed, it must be remembered that all 

 will, in the end, depend upon the judgment and fitness 

 of the trainer who seeks to apply this system. Good 

 tools never made a mechanic skillful ; college education 

 never made a man brilliant and talented ; good train- 

 ing never made a trotter of a colt that had not natural 

 speed, and the best s^^stem of training in the world 

 will not make a great trainer of any man who has not 

 natural fitness for his business. Xo amount of instruc- 

 tion and experience will make a good trainer of a man 

 to whom nature has not given the qualities required in 

 successfully and intelligently training horses. They 

 may be called gifts of the eye and the hand, but 

 they are more than that, for behind the well-directed 

 eye and hand must be a cool, active and well-balanced 

 brain. 



The first day's training in harness, which I have 

 described in this chapter, should be adhered to without 

 any increase for the first ten davs or so. From four to 

 six brushes will be sufficient at first, but in say two 

 weeks it can be increased a little. Don't increase the 

 length of the brushes, but the number and speed of 

 them, but this increase must be slow and gradual, 

 according to the size and capacity of the colt, and the 

 relish he shows for the work. 



It is a good plan to let the colt up for two or three 

 days, every three or four weeks, for a run out and a 

 rest. This will freshen him up, and these breaks in 

 the monotony will, if he is not overdone or bars lily 

 Avorked, be an effective preventative of track sickness 

 and staleness. After each little let up he will go to 

 work again with more keenness and vim. Barring 



