The Driving Clubs of Greater Boston 



181 



the rider or driver of a young horse to force 

 it past an object at which it is shying by the 

 infliction of punishment with whip or spur, 

 and by jabbing it in the mouth. Nothing could 

 lie worse than to do this. After this wrong- 

 hcaded practice has been repeated a couple of 

 times the young horse (horses have excellent 

 memories, especially for disagreeable things) 

 learns to remember that it is punished on 

 shying, and thus whenever it shies it expects 

 punishment to follow immediately, which nat- 

 urally greatly increases its fears, and causes 

 it to swerve all the more badly, or to attempt 

 to run away. The fear of punishment, more- 

 over, renders the animal much more inclined 

 to shy, as in these circumstances it does not 

 shy at an object so much as at the punishment 

 which it expects to follow. It does not take 

 long to convert a young horse of a nervous 

 temperament, and which is by nature inclined 

 to shy somewhat easily, into a confirmed and 

 incurable shyer by such senseless treatment. 



The proper way to manage a young horse 

 when it shies is to treat it kindly and with 

 patience. On no account must it be punished 

 in any way for shying. Its fear or nervous- 

 ness should be allayed by speaking quietly to 

 the animal, by patting it on the neck, etc. — 

 in brief, by cajoling it, as it were — that will 

 readily calm it. If it objects to go past an 

 object on account of its being afraid of it, it 

 should be coaxed, in order to induce it to pass 



the same. It is quite wrong to force it in 

 pass the object by means of punishment. It 

 is a good plan to allow a young horse to have 

 a good look at any object for which it evinces 

 much fear, it being coaxed to go close to it 

 and to smell at it, so that the animal may con- 

 vince itself that it is harmless and that its 

 fears are groundless. If this is done, the 

 horse will probably take but little or no no- 

 tice of the same object next time it passes or 

 encounters it. It is easy enough, as a rule, 

 to overcome and eradicate the propensity t 

 shy which arises from greenness and nervous- 

 ness in a young, unmade horse, by power and 

 patient management. 



Not infrequently horses are addicted to the 

 habit of shying or swerving at certain objects 

 merely as the result of light-heartedness, or 

 of an excess of high spirits, due to their being 

 very fresh or under-worked and full of oats. 

 In such cases a horse will shy at objects with 

 which it is quite familiar, and of which it 

 ordinarily takes no notice whatever, and very 

 often, in addition to shying or swerving, the 

 animal bucks or kicks up its heels at the same 

 time, when it is being ridden. This mischiev- 

 ous or playful — though often very awkward 

 and annoying — kind of shying, which is 

 caused by an exuberance of spirits, is prac- 

 ticed only while the horse remains fresh, and 

 ceases as soon as the animal settles down to 

 its work and has expended its superfluous 

 enersrv. 



Amateur Racing Creates Big Demand 

 for Our Outclassed Trotters 



FOREMOST in the promotion of 

 amateur racing in this country is 

 Harry K. Devereux, of Cleveland. 

 He is therefore a very capable man 

 to quote when expressing his views 

 of the value of the amateurs to trotting in- 

 terests. Just where the amateur and the 

 speedway stand today in the sporting world 

 was vividly stated by Mr. Devereux in the 

 Horse Breeder, as follows : 



"Perhaps the most serious thing that con- 

 fronts our breeding interests is the lack of 

 demand for the outclassed racer and the 

 animal not desired or fitted for breeding pur- 

 poses. This condition, born of the grow ' 

 in the use of the automobile, has become 

 apparent to all. The difference in the value 

 of such horses and those desired for racing 

 or breeding has become so great that the 



breeder must become discouraged, for com- 

 paratively few of his produce can hope for a 

 remunerative market. And what will the 

 result be? 



"It does not seem probable that we will 

 ever go back to driving on the road, which 

 gave a good market for the cheaper horse. 

 Then, will we have enough trotters bred to 

 support our tracks, or will some other use 

 for the cheaper horse appear that will again 

 encourage the large extension of breeding in- 

 terests? 



"If such a thing comes to pass, I cannot 

 imagine what it may be, unless it were the 

 larger development of matinee clubs and 

 speedways. From them alone now comes 

 the demand for our outclassed trotters, or 

 those not fitted for breeding, and, while 

 there are a large number of such clubs and 



