EVERY MAN HIS OWN TRAINER. 53 



ago, owned by a gentleman in our city that was very anxious 

 to get the worth of his money, and thought the way to do it 

 was to be on hand every morning to see that his horse had 

 plenty of work on the track. He was there promptly at 7 

 o'clock. He would say, " Jack, have you worked the horse ? " 

 I would reply, " No, I thought I would let the boy jog him on 

 the road a little ways this morning and not speed him." His 

 reply w^ould be, " You better straighten him out a little ; let 

 him step along a mile ; he will never learn to trot unless you 

 trot him." And I naturally wanting to please him, would 

 hitch him to a sulky and give him a mile ; every mile would 

 be slower than the morning before. The facts are, the first 

 time I hitched him to a sulky, taking him out of his owner's 

 road wagon, he showed me a full mile in 2:47, and at the end 

 of two weeks it was hard work to drive him a mile in 3:10. 

 I then said to the owner one of two things you must do, 

 "Take this horse home and keep him there or leave the horse 

 with me and you go home and stay there until I want you."' 

 The horse's ankles had chapped, his mouth was sore, and I 

 was sore to think that a man had no more judgment than to 

 want to make a trotter of a horse in two weeks. He said, 

 "All right ; when you want me you know where to find me." 

 I did not put the harness on that horse in five days ; then I 

 commenced leading him behind a skeleton wagon, as road 

 carts were not in use then, and gave him a little run in the 

 paddock every night and morning. His mouth got well, his 

 ankles healed up, and he began to act cheerful and limber and 

 show more spirit. I then put the harness on him and gave 

 him a slow mile or two ; he seemed to like it. As I met the 

 owner in town one evening, I said, "Come over in the morn- 

 ing and see the horse go ? " He said, "All right, my boy, I 

 will be there; what time shall I come?" I replied, " TLight 

 or nine o'clock.'' And he came. I hitched the horse, went 

 out and gave him an easy mile in about 3:00, I cooled him 

 out and in usual time put the harness on him and went out 

 again, he stepped off the mile in 2:40 much easier than lie 



