AND OTHER SKETCHES 249 



MY EXPERIENCE WITH A PULLER. 



In the early '70 's Frank Henderson was a leading hotel- 

 keeper in Bowmanville and was well known on the Cana- 

 dian trotting and running turf. He owned several run- 

 ners at different times and used to pick up quite a few 

 races. It could not be said that his nags were top-notch- 

 ers, but they came in for a share of what was going and 

 as the owner was a plucky bettor and generally had a 

 ^ ' roll ' ' he cut quite a figure at the small meetings. 



Henderson once owned a bay gelding called Frank and 

 I am open to lay long odds that he was one of the very 

 toughest, hardest pullers that ever had a bit in his mouth. 

 He was a good-looking bay gelding about 15^/2 hands high 

 and as smooth-gaited a trotter as ever wore iron. The 

 man who handled him for Henderson was the well-known 

 Pat Carney, as reckless a driver as ever held reins in 

 his hands — one who would take all sorts of chances in a 

 race and who was a terror to nervous drivers. Carney 

 had his horse one winter exercising on the roads around 

 Toronto and on an afternoon at the ''Peacock" Hotel, on 

 the Dundas road, kept by Robert Wilson, I met Carney, 

 who drove up with the bay gelding. There had been a 

 great fall of snow and it was only in the centre of the 

 road that the going was passable. There were about a 

 dozen of us out for a sleigh drive and one of the party 

 proposed that we drive to Lambton Mills, a few miles 

 further west. This was agreed to, and as I was about 

 stepping into my cutter, between the shafts of which I was 

 driving a smart black mare, Carney came up and sug- 

 gested that I try his nag, as far as the next hotel and 

 he would take mine. Knowing that Pat never drove a 

 slow one, I was content to make the change, and the six 

 started Indian file for Lambton. I was the whipper-in 

 of the lot, but before we had gone a quarter of a mile the 

 horse pulled so hard that it was a case of either going 

 over the top of the chap in front or pulling out into the 

 deep snow to get by. This I succeeded in doing and, 



