THE TRIALS OF AVOLA. 6 1 



wore these shoes until June 3d, when they were replaced with 16- 

 ounce ones with the "Eclipse" ftxstener for toe-weights. She wore that 

 Aveight until July 27th, when I put on tips weighing 6 ounces each 

 with the same weight-fastener, and these she wore until August 18th, 

 when she sprained her hind ankle slightly and was again turned out. 

 The fastest mile she trotted when wearing the shoes from August 

 16th, 1877, to November .5th, was 2:52. The result of the 8-ounce 

 tips was that on November 8th she trotted a quarter in forty-one 

 seconds, the mile in 2:48|. Still I was induced to try the shoes 

 again on December 10th, thinking that her heels were hardly in 

 proper shape for the tips, and the horn being of slow growth from 

 wearing them so long, the shoes might be better. Another, and more 

 forcible reason, was that I had made a present of her to my friend 

 B. C. Wright, and I did not want my preference for tips to mislead 

 me with the property of another, and whenever I was in doubt re- 

 garding the effect, I would stick in that case to the established cus- 

 tom. Mr. Wright was perfectly willing that I should try the experi- 

 ments, and from what he had seen of the benefits of the tips to the 

 feet, he is using them on the horses on his ranch in Mendocino 

 County, and finds such an improvement that he says he would not 

 have them I'eplaced with shoes if the blacksmith would do his work 

 for nothing. 



The favorable result of the 28-ounce shoes on Albatross determined 

 me to try the same plan with Avola, and each froiit shoe weighed 2 2 

 ounces. While wearing them she was driven on the road, the wet 

 weather making the track unfit to work upon, but as the other filly 

 could beat her so easily, I think that there was no improvement while 

 she wore them. The copper tips extending across the foot, the whole 

 portion anterior to the frog being covered, appeared to enable her to 

 do better, but as she kept cutting and bruising the quarter of her 

 near fore foot, and, owing to the want of the heel of the shoe, the 

 quai-ter-boot could not be kept in place. The shoes put on the 20th 

 of ]\Iay were very thin at the heel, so as to allow the frog to touch, and 

 with them I used " Eureka' toe- weights — shoe and weight, 14 ounces. 

 The 2 2d she moved through the stretch in forty seconds, striding 

 farther than before, which I gave the toe- weights the credit for 



