WAY OF GOING— THE FUNCTION 



27 



first class. An individual may owe his proficiency to either his 

 opportunities or what is in him, exclusively, or to a favorable 

 combination of both. Only the highest education, in accordance 

 with the strongest natural aptitude, can accomplish the greatest 

 attainment. Hence, it is hardly worth while to spend time and 

 money in educating a colt in ways to which he is not adapted. 

 It is a difficult and unsatisfactory task to school a born trotter 

 to an acceptable show of action. Ample proof of the accuracy 

 of this statement, reversed, is found in the earlier days of horse 



Fig. 23. — Baae narrow, 

 toe wide; nigger-heeled or 

 splay-footed. 



Fig. 24. — Toe narrow 

 or pigeon-toed. 



Fio. 25. — Knock-kneed. 



shows in this country. It was common to find single-minded 

 horsemen resorting to all sorts of ingenious ways and means of 

 preventing a horse from going high in order to make a trotter of 

 him. They often gave up in despair, and sacrificed him to the 

 knowing buyer, who, by changing tactics and schooling him along 

 the line of action for which he had a strong inclination, finally 

 turned him out a show horse of note. If, on the other hand, we 

 take a natural character and develop it by artificial means, we 

 may expect results far in advance of what could otherwise be 

 obtained. 'No race or show horse, of any class, comes to his high 

 degree of proficiency without an education. The trotter must 



