2:1:6 TKAIXIXG THE TROTTING HOKSE. 



best when rather stouter than what on the average is 

 regarded as perfect condition, while others show the 

 highest form when trained pretty "fine" — but the lat- 

 ter are in the minority. That some horses are at their 

 best when very fine is true beyond question; but I 

 know that in the great majority of cases a horse, to be 

 in the pink of condition, must carry a quite fair degree 

 of flesh — a good smooth coating over the ribs, not feel- 

 ing gross and thick to the hand, but amply covering 

 the bones. The hair should be soft and glossy, the 

 coat smooth and velvety to the touch, never harsh and 

 dried up, and the horse should perspire freely a clear 

 sweat. But to describe condition is like trying to tell 

 a man how to drive. You cannot do it. You can help, 

 but his own intuition must be his greatest teacher in 

 almost ever}^ point of the trainer's art. There is an 

 old Spanish proverb which I have seen lately quoted 

 with an apt application : " It is the eye of the master 

 that fattens the horse." It is the eye of the trainer 

 that makes him " fit." 



The study of the peculiarities of your pupils, to 

 which I referred, in passing a moment ago, is a most 

 important part of the trainer's business. As the writer 

 from whom I have just quoted very properly sa^^s : 

 " Horses, like men, have idiosyncrasies of mind and 

 body ; like men, they require humoring, and cannot 

 safel}^ be treated as machines (which is too often done), 

 and what is termed tact must be exercised with both. 

 The progress of training must be gradual and pro- 

 gressive — never standing still. Inaction means deteri- 

 oration." When a trainer and a horse get at cross- 

 purposes with each other they had better part com- 



