38 HAN"DBOOK OF THE TURF. 



which transaction, if the horse won, as he did, the backer 

 would win -f 5,000 for risking $1,500, and the book-maker lose 

 the ^5,000 which he risked to win the smaller sum. 



Past Epsom's spring, again we try 



Our luck wiMi bookies and witli horses 



On yet another field, wliere lie 

 Tlie mysteries of the Guineas' courses. 



— Bird 'o Freedom. 



Boots. Protective coverings for the hoof and leg of the 

 horse, designed to guard them against injury from cutting, 

 overreaching, or interfering when in motion. From the plain, 

 simple quarter boot or scalper of 1870, to the more than two 

 hundred patterns of artistically made and ingeniously contrived 

 combination boots of the present day, the evolution has been 

 rapid, varied, and remarkable ; and the universality of their 

 use may be inferred from the fact that one single house in 

 Boston alone, sells more than $10,000 worth annually of the 

 various patterns. Boots are used on both the racing and trot- 

 ting ttirf, and no stable is complete without an outfit sufficient 

 for every horse and for all emergencies. Among the leading 

 types are : Ankle ; ankle and shin ; ankle and speedy cut ; ankle 

 with heel extension ; arm ; arm and knee ; calking ; coronet ; 

 double shin ; double shin and ankle ; elbow ; elastic compress ; 

 elastic kn tickler ; heel ; hinged knee, shin, and ankle ; hock ; 

 hoof and speedy cut ; knee ; knee, shin, and ankle ; knee and 

 arm; loaded, or weighted; passing; pastern; quarter; ring; 

 running ; scalping ; shin ; shin, ankle, and speedy cut ; soaking ; 

 swivel ; toe ; toe and speedy cut. Under each of these leading 

 forms are numerous ingenious combinations adapted for 

 horses of peculiar conformation or erratic gait which cannot be 

 well described. They are made of French calfskin, felt. Ker- 

 sey, cording, elastic shirring, and buckskin, according to the 

 ditt'erent purposes for which they are used. Boots are very 

 necessary for colts when thej^ are being gaited, and when the 

 gait is established they may for a time be left off with safety ; 

 although very few trotters are able to dispense with them 

 entirely, while many of them could not be used on the turf at 

 all except for these appliances. 



No liorse or colt will fall to liitching and hobbling if l)e is properly pro- 

 tected with boots, unless he is sore or over-hurried. Because 

 we boot a colt is no reason for supposing tliat we Iviiow he will 

 strike himself. They are used as a safeguard — as a precaution 

 against possible accidents and injuries that may come to the tmest- 

 gaited and most honest of horses; and it gives the horse confidence 

 to strike out fearlessly. No judicious or experienced trainer will 

 ever attempt to work "colts witliout first iiroperly booting them. — 

 Training the Trotting Horse, Charles Marvin. 



A horse may go for a njonlh or a year and never Idt himself, and then 

 some day he may step in a hole or some other accident befall him, 

 and for "the want of a boot in the proper place ixiin him as a race 

 horse. No horse should ever he driven without shin boots on the 



