CHAPTER VII. 



KiTEFOOT, MaMBRINO, DUDLEY — ThE LySANDER'S SHIPMENTS OF HORSES 



TO Germany and Austria— Tracks and Races on the Con- 

 tinent. 



The next really good race horse I had was Kitefoot, 

 2:17;^, that is to say a good money getter, she would always 

 get some of it and would now and then win a race that would 

 do us some good. She had a record of 2:22;^ when she came 

 into my hands. Most every one said, " Jack, she won't be 

 any good in her class. Cornell has had the cream of her,'' and 

 I think he had, as she done Albert some good. I knew she 

 was in high company, but I thought she was a good race 

 mare from what I had seen of her, still she was lame in front 

 and always had been whenever I had seen her trot. She came 

 into my hands in the fall of 1885, after a hard season's cam- 

 paign. I gave her a nice let up, removed her shoes, gave her 

 plenty of soft feed, and cooled her out well, gave her slow 

 work- — sometimes a walk and sometimes a little jogging in a 

 tan-bark ring. I continued this until about the first of Janu- 

 ary, then I put on her shoes and commenced to jog her two 

 to three miles a day, and increased it to about six after a 

 time. Spring came and I commenced to work her on the 

 track. I did not like her, as she was not properly balanced, 

 was uneven in her gait, and could not seem to go much. I 

 commenced experimenting in shoeing her, putting on shoes 

 varying in weight from twelve to twenty ounces. I probably 

 shod her a dozen different ways, finally I decided that a four- 

 teen-ounce shoe and a four-ounce toe weight in front, and a 

 six-ounce shoe on off hind foot and an eight-ounce shoe on 

 near hind foot, the weight being nearly all on outside, was 

 what she needed. I experimented with her work also ; she 

 was high spirited and full of vim, I thought she might need 

 more work, that is long, slow road work to take off that 



