n SHOES TO PLATES. 



In a treatise intended to account foi- tlie effects of toe and side- 

 weights, action is the first thing to consider, and if we cannot find 

 a key to the problem in this study, it will be useless to look for it 

 in any other direction. 



Long before the era of these latter-day appendages to the feet of 

 the trotter, it was well known that the action could be modified by 

 artificial appliances ; and so long ago that it has become dignified as 

 a proverb, there was a saying that " an ounce on the heel is equival- 

 ent to a pound on the back," the implication being that weight on 

 the feet influenced the action of the race-horse prejudicially, so that 

 he would tire quicker than if he had to carry sixteen times as much. 

 Something of the same idea governed when it is said that one horse 

 could beat another " shoes to plates," as this was about the strongest 

 term to convey decided superiority which could be used. 



It will not be out of place, then, to give some considei'ation to the 

 sources of action, so far as can be shown by the configuration ; and 

 yet the form will not decide, for in exceptional cases the horse of the 

 truest propoi'tion may be faulty in his movements, when the one of 

 inferior shape is the superior. Wei-e it not so, there would be no 

 use in the endeavor to remedy defects by education, for if the form 

 absolutely governed, that would end it, and the only recourse would 

 be to perfect the form by breeding after the desired type. The mod- 

 ification can be accomplished, and the slouch is transfoi-med into the 

 graceful dancer, and the members of the " awkward squad " become 

 models of precision. 



In training a man, his mentor can explain to him wherein his 

 " style " is faulty, and the necessity for acquiring a better method of 

 using his limbs. 



All the trainers in the world could not change the shamble of 

 Weston into the perfect gait of O'Leary, but if the education had 

 been commenced in time, there would have been an approximation 

 to the desired end. Reasoning and example are the dependence, 

 when man is the pupil, with pi-actice to perfect ; in the horse, me- 

 chanical devices take the place of pi-ecepts, and the combination of 

 these, and the animal's natural intelligence, are all that the trainer 



