FOLDING TBE KNEE. XXXV 



as it was complete. He wrote for the New York Sportsman an 

 essay which was published in that paper April 30, 1881. That essay 

 contained a good deal of sound logic, and yet I imagine that he was 

 troubled somewhat as I am, and did not feel very positive in »ivin<^ 

 reasons why the results he instanced followed the use. For instance, 

 he credits weight with giving a tendency to " sharper folding of the 

 knee," and reasons that St. Julian's manner of progression indicated 

 that weight would increase his speed, and Maud S would do better 

 without them : the reasoning, of course, being from a theoretical 

 point of view. He also states that " many horses that cut their 

 elbows when shod with an ordinary pound shoe have been prevented 

 from doing so by using an eight-ounce shoe and four-ounce weight." 

 Now, as weight on the wall, especially if placed high, is ci-edited with 

 giving sharper knee action, in that case the elbow should be struck 

 still harder. But practice jiroves that this is not the case, and we 

 ai-e all aware how superior are the teachings of that over the most 

 plausibly constructed theory in the world. People, however, are 

 becoming convinced that much bending of the knee is not so essential 

 as it was deemed a few years ago, and hence there is not the necessity 

 for appliances to give that excess of motion. Then, as in the case of 

 the " knee-knocker," it has been found that this exuberance may be 

 modified with the application of weight, and recently John A. Gold- 

 smith informed me that he intended to apply them on the Santa-Claus- 

 Sweetness two-year-old to " carry him out." This young trainer has 

 been remarkably successful, both in the use of weights and also in 

 discarding them when the proper time came. Director is an instance 

 of the latter, and after having been deemed one of the sort that re- 

 quired heavy weights to balance him, he can now trot very fast bare- 

 footed. In a conversation with O. A. Hickok a few days ago, he 

 told me that he saw Director move around the fii"st turn of the Bay 

 District Course in 36 1 seconds without anything o« his feet, and he 

 went with great ease and fine action. 



In the essay alluded to Mr. McKinney gives many instances of 

 the efficacy of toe and side-weights, and, doubtless, in the two sea- 

 sons since he wrote, many others have come under his observation. 

 It is not proper to take the views th.at wei-e expressed even so short 



