CHAPTEB VI. 



THE COLTS TRAINING TRACKS ABOUT HORSES BREAKING 

 PEDIGREE AND DESCRIPTION OF KING. 



PUPIL. Boys, bring out the colts. We will have them 

 all out at once where you can take a general view ; and 

 without wishing to appear egotistical in praising my own 

 stock, must say they are of better appearance than a ma- 

 jority of trotters. They are all half bred, and some of 

 them have as pure a pedigree, if not as fashionable, as 

 either Asteroid or Kentucky. This one may have seen 

 too many summers to be fairly termed a colt. In fact, 

 the question of "can a filly have a foal?" once pro- 

 pounded by "a young turfman," can be settled in her 

 case, as she .was a mother before shedding all of her milk- 

 teeth. This circumstance prevented her being trained, 

 and with the exception of a little work when three years 

 old, she is not much better acquainted with how to handle 

 herself in a trot than the others, several years younger. 



As I previously remarked, I will be obliged if you will 

 assist me in naming the neophytes, though I have done 

 so usually on the spur of the moment, not expecting they 

 would always wear their titles. But as with the young aspi- 

 rants in chivalry, the names would answer till they had 

 shown by their devoirs that they were worthy the fitting 

 ornaments of golden spurs and a distinctive name. On a 

 beautiful morning the first of May, I found. this mare stand- 

 ing by her mother. The bright natal morning suggested a 

 name of itself, and May-Flower, Queen of the May, May- 



