JEALOUSY OF TEAIKERS. 333 



mortified that lie does not improve as the owner and he 

 expected. After weeks or months are spent, and, per- 

 haps, just as there is a chance for him to improve, the 

 owner becomes disgusted, and takes the horse away, blam- 

 ing the trainer for not knowing "how to get the speed out 

 of him." 



Bad weather has not had much to do with this disap 

 pointment, but there are cases where the trainer is blamed 

 for what he could not control any more than in this in- 

 stance. A horse has trotted the previous season fast, has 

 been well wintered, and is put into the hands of the trainer 

 in the spring in as fine order to commence work as could 

 be wished. Rain, making muddy tracks, and cold, raw 

 weather, makes it impossible that the horse should have 

 the necessary work. After a lapse of time, which the 

 owner thinks sufficient, a trial is insisted upon, which is, 

 of course, unsatisfactory. The horse is hurried into 

 another with the same result, and the trainer's incapacity 

 seems to be apparent, and the horse* is removed into other 

 hands. There have probably been machinations to effect 

 this which are unknown to the credulous owner. I am 

 sorry to say anything against members of the craft, but 

 there is jealousy of each other that prompts them to go to 

 lengths that are contemptibly mean. If a horse is not do- 

 ing well in the hands of a trainer, his rival's stool pigeons 

 will commence work by telling things that will reach the 

 owner's ears, and such as will surely have the intended 

 effect, if the man is not thoroughly conversant with these 

 nefarious practices. Should the rival manage to have the 

 horse transferred to him, his aim is accomplished. Some- 

 thing is gained if he can only say, "Mr. Blank took his 

 horse from Jones and gave him to me." If the horse does 

 well, there is no end to his boasting of what he has done, 

 which the owner can only repay by giviog him all his win- 

 nings in addition to his regular training expenses. If he 



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