RACING, OR TURF HORSES. 543 



usually from defect in training. The perfect horse is trained to pull just 

 sufficient to steady himself in harness. How Hiram Woodruff drove, he 

 tells in his *' Trotting-Horse of America." No one, during his life, or 

 since his death, was better authority in such matters. Hence, we cannot 

 do better than to give it to our readers in his exact words. 



In order that a fast horse should be under circumstances to do his best, 

 he should be as much at his ease in his harness and general rig as possible . 

 If he is not, he is placed at almost as much disadvantage as if sore or 

 stiff, or suffering from some bodily ailment. You may see horses brought 

 out of the stable to trot with a very tight check to keep their heads up, 

 and a tight martingale to keep them down. Such a horse is in irons ; and 

 when to this is added a dead drag at the reins, and no movement of the 

 bit from end to end, I cannot see how he could do his best. People talk 

 about a steady, bracing pull ; but, in my opinion, that is not the right 

 way to drive a trotter. There is a great difference between letting go of 

 your horse's head, and keeping up one dull, deadening pull all the time. 

 The race-horse riders practice what is called a bracing pull ; and, a great 

 many times, I have seen their horses tire under it without ever running 

 their best. The steady pull checked them. The pull should be sufficient 

 to feel the mouth, and give some support and assistance, so as to giv6 

 the horse confidence to get up his stride. More than that is mischievous. 

 To keep the mouth alive, the bit must be shifted a little occasionally A 

 mere half -turn of the waist, or less than half a turn, by which the thumb 

 is elevated and the little finger lowered, is sufficient to shift the bit, keep 

 the mouth sensitive, and rouse the horse. 



The reins are to be held steadily with both hands while this play with 

 the wrist is made ; and it is, of course, only done with one wrist at a time. 

 The hands should be well down ; and the driver ought not to sit all of a 

 heap, with his head forward. Neither should he lean back, with his bod', 

 ily weight on the reins, which, in that case, are made a sort of stay for 

 him. He should be upright ; and what pulling he must do should 

 be done by the muscular force of the arms. The head and the arms are 

 what a good driver uses ; but some hold their arms straight out, and puU 

 by means of putting the dead weight of their bodies on the reins. If, 

 instead of lying back, and putting their bodily weight on the reins, with 

 which latter they take a turn round their hands, drivers would depend 

 upon their muscular strength, they could let up on the pull, graduate it, 

 and so ease the horse from time to time instantaneously. The driver who 

 depends upon the arms has command of the horse : he who substitutes 

 bodily weight with the reins strapped round his hands, has not half com- 

 mand of the horse, or of himself either ; and, if the horse is a puller, 

 he will soon take command of the driver. The reason of it is, that there 



