CHAPTEE IV.— Unsolved Problems. 



"When I wrote the preceding chapters of the appendix, about two 

 years ago, I then thought I had a fair knowledge of weight on the 

 feet of horses. Now, after that length of time of study, observa- 

 tion, and the tests of many experiments, I am in doubt, and in place 

 of oflering rules for the guidance of others, am forced to admit a 

 Avant of confidence to make statements with any degi-ee of authority. 

 Further than that, I have the same lack of confidence in the opinions 

 of others, and incline to believe that the future must be depended 

 upon for satisfactory elucidation. There has been a wonderful im- 

 provement in the manner of applying weights from the nxde contriv- 

 ances at first in vogue ; there has been a great increase in the intelli- 

 gence which has led to a more rational use, and yet there is a void 

 as annoying as it is puzzling. 



That fast trotters have been made by the use of weights is beyond 

 even the cavilings of the hypercritical ; that many promising horses 

 have been ruined by the abuse of them is equally true. For a time 

 Ihere was a mania, an infatuation which became epidemic, and from 

 Maine to the Pacific every track had a majority of horses encumbered 

 with these appendages. Probably Indiana, for the number of trotters 

 in training, gave them the gi-eatest prominence. Saddle-horses had 

 been prized there ever since the settlement of the country, and the 

 popular saddle-gaits were cultivated. Kentucky and others of the 

 Southern States were equally as anxious to improve the horses that 

 played so important a part in daily life, but with the excej)tion of a 

 portion of Tennessee, and some sections of Missouri, Kentucky was 

 the most indefatigable in perfecting and breeding the trotter. The 

 pacer and those so often confounded with the ])acer, viz., the rackcrs, 

 were more readily " converted " by the use of weights than by any other 

 method. 



