the best by all means, for rigging a team for style 

 and comfort of driving. While this arrangement 

 gives more perfect control of the animal in case of 

 fright, accident, etc., it is at no time oppressive or in 

 the least annoying to him. For breaking and driving 

 colts it is invaluable. 



It was a rig exactly like this that the great ' ' Alix" wore 

 when she made the world's record, 2.03M, and after the 

 author of this work had directed the preparation and shoe- 

 ing of her feet. 



''Balancing- the Trotter." 



Copy of a letter written by the author and published in the Ameri- 

 can Horse Breeder of Boston. 



" I am in receipt of your favor asking me to write for you an 

 article on the above subject. I will try to give you some points 

 that may be of interest, but as horses' feet differ so widely, it 

 would take a volume of good size to give a set of rules that 

 could sufficiently cover the many types of different feet, so that 

 it might be found of practical benefit to owners and breeders, 

 and they are the class of people who might be interested, if I can 

 command attention from any who take an interest in the horse 

 and how to balance his action. Drivers and trainers have rai-ely 

 any use for information. They " know it all," and I do not 

 write for their edification. 



One thing to start with is that 1 never use any peculiar shoe 

 or any artificial mechanical contrivance to balance the gait of 

 the trotters. I do all my work in the way of balancing on the 

 feet themselves, and adjust a shoe that carries out perfectly 

 that balance, for pacers as well as trotters. 



1 notice that all of the so-called practical horseshoers explain 

 how to cure this and that trouble of irregular action by the use 

 of some sort of a shoe, made in an irregular manner. Very few 

 of the designs described are at all novel or new to me, and not a 

 single one of them is fit or necessary to put on the foot of a 

 horse in order to correct the fault It is sought to remedy. 



Strange shoes may temporarily change the action of the knee 

 hitter, the elbow hitter, the forger, the scalper and other wrong 

 and de\ iating gaits, but they will not cure the animal of any of 

 these faults, if the foot that offends be still allowed to remain in 

 the faulty position that caused the irregularity complained of. 

 Another objection to the use of such inventions is that most of 

 them do actual harm to the joints, tendons and muscles of the 

 animal. It must be borne in mind that the instinct of the horse 

 suggests to him the action or gait that is the easiest for him to 

 use, and such he will invariably employ. 



60 



