RECOLLECTIONS OF MEN AND HORSES 



they can go, and go good-gaited; always drive them 

 with a light hand, and repeat the same work daily 

 for ten days or two weeks. At the end of that time 

 you will be surprised at the way they have improved. 

 One thing you want to have is your track in as good 

 shape as it can be put. In regard to the footing, do 

 not think that colts will do well or improve fast 

 where the footing is cuppy, or breaks out under them. 

 At the end of their ten days' work, we give them a 

 trial of a quarter, and sometimes a half. Last fall 

 I worked twenty yearlings for two weeks as above. 

 Out of the twenty, twelve of them stepped eighths 

 in 20 seconds or better, one an eighth in 17^ seconds, 

 a quarter in 37 seconds, a half in 1.19, and six of 

 them stepped eighths from 18 to 19 seconds, and 

 quarters from 39 to 43 seconds. All work was to a 

 light cart. I prefer a light cart to a sulky. At the 

 end of two weeks' work let up on them. But, if 

 you have time, after a run on grass of two weeks, 

 take them up and give them the same kind of 

 work as you did in the first two weeks. They 

 will improve very much faster after taking up the 

 second time. As a rule the second or third time 

 you step them they will show as much speed as they 

 did at the end of the last work-out; and from that 

 time on, if all goes right, will make speed through the 

 second two weeks' work, and will stand stepping one 

 or two fast eighths every day and improve. Then 

 let up on them ; and the ones that you think are good 

 enough to go on with, and work as two-year-olds, 

 keep up through the winter, and jog both single and 

 double, but not far at a time. I never jog a yearling 

 further than three miles, and most of the time only 

 two miles in the winter or summer. I think that one 

 of the worst things that you can do for a yearling 



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