xlvi A WRONG DIRECTION. 



jjendulum ; but then arose the question of overcoming the inertia, 

 and that might counteract the tendency to swing away from the 

 weight. In order to give it a practical test I had a set of hind shoes 

 made for X X, the inside web being double the outside, and conse- 

 quently twice the weight. Each shoe weighed eighteen ounces, 

 twelve on the inside from the center of the toe back, to six ounces 

 on the outer pai-t. Riding behind him in a skeleton wagon before 

 the shoes were put on and afterwards, I thought that I could plainly 

 see that he went wider. He wore these shoes from February 14th 

 to March 30, 1882, and when pulled off that from the right foot 

 weighed 15| ounces, and the left 15 ounces. This difference in the 

 wear was, doubtless, owing to an injury to the hock joint which 

 made it a trifle stiff, and consequently there was moi-e of a sliding 

 motion, and less hock action than in the other. The same day the 

 shoes were removed I drove him to the track, and though he moved 

 easier without the heavy hind shoes, it was perceptible that the feet 

 were carried closer together. Before making this test I had a con- 

 versation with Hon. A. P. Whitney, of Petaluma, which arose from 

 a question he asked. The query was : " What do you consider the 

 proper method to follow when a horse brushes the outside of his fore- 

 foot in passing it with the hind ?" The reply was that if he had 

 asked the question a few weeks before, I should have answered 

 promptly : " Use side- weights on the outside of his hind feet ;" but 

 now I was in doubt of that being the right course. He then informed 

 me that he had a horse which just grazed the fore-foot, and, follow- 

 ing instructions, he applied side- weights. In place of " carrying him 

 further out," as he was assured would be the result, he went so much 

 further in the opposite direction that he struck squarely into his 

 heel, and with so much force there as to " knock him off his feet." 



The only other illustration, apart from my own trials, was a test 

 which John A. Goldsmith made with Inca. He had the same views 

 I formerly shared, and in a conversation last summer advocated 

 placing the weight on the outside. One of his " string " was the 

 stallion Inca by Woodford Mambrino, from the dam of Del Sur and 

 Eomero. He was a horse of peculiar action, twisting his fore feet 

 outward and anything but a true-gaited trotter. 



