224 TRAINING THE TROTTING HORSE. 



these rests, the colt's work will go on every day — 

 Sundays excepted — presuming that he has been kept 

 well and right. When he is two years old he will take 

 more work, but not a greath^ increased distance. I am 

 not prepared to say that the length of the brush 

 should ever be increased to over a quarter of a mile. 

 We are now, mark you, working our colt for speed. 

 You will, no doubt, inquire how a horse can trot a race 

 without being worked mite heats. You cannot cut 

 much of a figure in a race without speed, and, after 

 you have developed speed sufficient to go away from 

 home with, it Avill be time enough to condition hnn to 

 carry it. You must have the speed before you can win 

 races. It is of no use to condition your horse to go 

 mile heats, if you haven't first got the speed to beat 

 somebody else. You will see, then, that the Palo Alto 

 system proceeds on the logic of the author of the 

 recipe already quoted for cooking the hare : " First 

 catch your hare." We aim to first develop the speed, 

 and after that to condition the horse to carry it. The 

 merit of this system of training in short, sharp brushes 

 lies in the fact that it is the quickest and most efi'ective 

 way of at once toning up and hardening the muscles, 

 and bringing out a high rate of speed — of teaching the 

 colt to trot fast. A noted racing-man, when asked 

 what the first essential quality in a race-horse was, 

 answered, " Speed," that the next was " speed," and, 

 after that, " more speed." After you have your colt 

 going quarters in thirty-five seconds, or thirt3^-six 

 seconds, or thirty-eight seconds, whenever you have 

 had him show you enough speed and a big margin to 

 spare to do what you are going to require of him, you 



