XXV. A BAD SPEEDY CUTTER. 



The late Freeman M. Dodge of Pittsfield, Mass., trainer 

 and driver, had a bay mare by the name of "Tillie Wilkes" 

 that was speedy cutting so bad that he was not able to work 

 her, and he came to me to find out if I could stop her from 

 speedy cutting. I told him I could not tell until I saw her 

 driven. He brought her over and drove her down the 

 stretch at a three minute gait. This mare had a sore spot 

 on the lower inside of -one hind ankle that was raw, the size 

 of a silver dollar and when she began touching this spot, 

 speedy cutting, she would jump and begin running. After 

 seeing this mare driven I found she had excessive action 

 in front and very lofty, and her hind action mostly all 

 stifle action and very little hock action and her feet were 

 in bad shape. She was driven over the next day to be shod 

 and I had her shoes ready when she arrived. I fixed this 

 mare's front feet by lowering her quarters and heels as 

 much as nature would allow me, and left all the toe possible. 

 This gave her a longer leverage to leave the ground from, 

 which kept her from breaking over so quick, and it reduced 

 her lofty knee action and created more extension. I took 

 off a twelve-ounce shoe from each of her front feet, and 

 applied a four-ounce aluminum shoe. 



Fixing her hind feet and shoeing them was the most 

 important. I shortened the toes and lowered the inside of 

 each hind foot until the inside of them was as low as the 

 outside or a shade lower if anything. I fitted a pair of 

 heavy side-weight shoes, the heavy side of the shoes on the 

 outside of the hind feet, each hind shoe weighed about 

 eleven ounces with heel calks. This job stopped all the 

 speedy cutting and she trotted quarters in 31 seconds shortly 

 after, and was sold to Mr. Shults for $750.00. 



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