124 EVERY MAN HIS OWN TRAINER. 



shoes I found they had worn away one-half in a week. No 

 horse could stand such a great reduction in so short a time. 

 Jock Bowen has often laughed at me about that race, sa}'ing I 

 was the worst scared man he ever saw without being hurt, as 

 I had about made up my mind to try and compromise with 

 him and ask him to please not go quite so fast, when the fact 

 was Jock had his money on my horse without my knowledge, 

 as he knew King Almont could win the race. 



1 will cite another case in the mare Lady Whitefoot, 

 2:18^. When she came into my hands she was brushy and 

 speedy, but was unsteady, uneven in her gait ; she would not 

 go over twenty or thirty rods square ; she would then com- 

 mence to hitch, hobble and shive, and unless I would take 

 her right back she would break and run, but was a good 

 breaker, would not make but a few jumps before she 

 would strike a trot and go square for a few strides, and then 

 would commence to scrabble again. I first thought it was on 

 account of her hitting her near hind shin, which she did quite 

 hard, but I soon became satisfied that the trouble was in the 

 balance beam, that is, she was not properly shod. I devoted 

 one afternoon to the shoeing of her. She wore very light 

 shoes, nine or ten ounces in front and about four ounces be- 

 hind. She did not wear any toe- weights. I hitched her to a 

 skeleton wagon and tied her tail up close, and moved her 

 along up to her speed ; as she increased her speed she would 

 begin to go with her near hind foot in between her forward 

 feet. I discovered she had from four to six inches more stride 

 with her right forward foot than her left one, as near as I 

 could judge, that was the cause of her near hind foot going 

 in between the forward feet trying to keep up with that off front 

 foot. I shod her tlirec times that afternoon. I would change 

 her shoes, hitch her up and drive her a little ways and thought 

 I could see a little improvement, but not quite enough ; 

 would come back and change the shoes again, that is, kept 

 filing out a little more weight on the near front shoe. Finally 

 when I found the right front shoe weighed nine and three-quar- 



