20 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 



sponge and with it we lifted the perspiration off her. I 

 found that the less we rubbed her body the better natured she 

 was. I think if we had scraped and rubbed her she would 

 have wasted away and would not have been the great mare 

 she turned out to be. I seldom jogged her as I did the other 

 horses. She was so high strung and nervous at a slow gait 

 that she was harder on herself going slow than when allowed 

 to step along for a little. For instance, often when I went 

 out to jog her she would twist and fret and show that she 

 did not want to go slow, so to please and humor her I would 

 get to the half and then let her step off at probably a 2:05 

 gait, perhaps better, in other words I would let her go the 

 clip that satisfied her. Maybe I had intended to jog her 

 three miles, but after letting her step I would abandon the 

 jogging and take her to her stall. I tell all this because 

 some other trainer may some day have a very fast, nervous 

 horse and he may profit by the experiences I had with Lou 

 Dillon, for I know that many good horses, probably two- 

 minute trotters have been thrown away. 



"I can cite many times when Lou Dillon looked to be 

 absolutely worthless. She was so high strung that you 

 could not give her work enough to quiet her and if you 

 gave her the work she would not eat as much as a canary 

 bird. 



"I remember, quite well, her only bad performance, the 

 disappointing one at Brighton Beach in 2:03'%|^. After that 

 mile I talked with Tommy Waugh and he told me to get 

 another man to groom her as he could not get her to eat 

 enough to enable her to go her good miles. T cannot do 

 it' he said. I told him our dictionary contained no such 

 word as can't and added: 'You may not be able to make 

 her eat enough but WE will. I am going to help you.' At 

 that time she would not eat a quart of oats in twenty-four 

 hours. I said to Tommy: 'We have done too much work 

 on this mare and she is too fast to give up. We will coax 

 and persuade her to eat enough to go on.' So I told him to 

 wait until I came back from the city. I was all at sea but 

 I had no faith in condition powders or appetizers or dope 

 so I decided to try to make a vegetarian out of her. In 



