46 EVERY MAN HIS OWN TRAINER. 



myself, the child is born, and so it was. She went right on 

 and improved and was a good race horse ever after. She 

 trotted a good many heats close to 2:20, still she got no faster 

 record than 2:24^. 



I found one other little obstacle about this mare which it 

 might be well to mention as you may have one in this respect 

 to contend with. While she had as good a foot as you would 

 wish to sec on a horse, she would not go as well over a sting- 

 ing hard track as she would one a little soft. About that 

 time I discovered the Locky pad for putting under a horses 

 shoe, and it struck me as what I had been looking for a long 

 time, something to put on the bottom of the foot to take off 

 the concussion. I got a pair of them at once and put them 

 under her shoes, and it was just what she needed, she would 

 shut her eyes and go one kind of a track as well as another. 

 I have used them ever since with great success with other 

 horses. I have given you the details of the case to show you 

 what can be done by patience, experimenting and persever- 

 ance. I won one race with her in the Grand Circuit at Buf- 

 falo, which paid me for all the tim.e I had spent with her. I 

 sat all the morning and bought her in the pools from a hun- 

 dred and upwards for from two to five dollars. I had trotted 

 her the week before at Cleveland in the same class and she 

 did not make a good showing, consequently they did not con- 

 sider me in the race. I went out in the afternoon and stepped 

 it off for them in one, two, three order, and was paid for all 

 the ridicule, vexation and trouble I had endured on her ac- 

 count. This was a case where patience won. 



When the snow is gone, the road bad and mudd)-, alter- 

 nately freezing and thawing, it would be well to remove the 

 shoes from your colt and give him a short let up, say two or 

 three weeks ; shorten up on the grain say one-third. He 

 should be walked once a day for about thirty minutes. Give 

 him plenty of hay to fill himself to get into a sort of state of 

 nature. As the weather and roads improve, which is probably 

 about A[)ril 1st, commence giving him a jog of four or five 



