TOE-WEIGHTS AND HEAVY SHOES. 227 



history I have given, furnishes an illustration ; and I 

 learned another lesson with the stallion Clay. AVhen 

 he was a two-year-old I put on eight-ounce shoes, but 

 in his work he acted as though he wanted more 

 weight, seeming to go a little short in front, and not to 

 handle his fore legs promptly enough. I then put on 

 ten ounces, but that did not remed}^ the trouble, for in 

 three or four days he seemed to require still more 

 weight, and I kept on adding weight until he carried 

 eighteen ounces on each fore foot. (That, remember, 

 was some years ago.) Then he labored in the shoul- 

 ders, and I reduced his shoes to eio^ht ounces ao-ain, 

 and kept him at a gait at which he could go squarely. 

 In this rig he could show quarters right around thirty- 

 five seconds in his two-vear-old form. The followino: 

 year he trotted some in public in eight-ounce shoes, 

 and took a record of 2:34. After I went East with the 

 stable in 1884, the driver who worked Clay, believing 

 he needed more weight, increased his front shoes to 

 fifteen ounces, and about two-thirds of the weight was 

 at the toe. He did no good with this weight, and it 

 caused him to strike his elbows. After mv return 

 from the East I took these shoes off, put on eight- 

 ounce ones, and with little time to prepare gave him a 

 record of 2:25 that fall. The weight I put on in the 

 first place was needless, and I have no doubt that had 

 I from the outset worked him in light shoes and not 

 asked him to go faster than he could go level he would 

 have ultimately proved a better horse. 



