CHAPTER XV 



TRAINERS — AND TRAINERS 



George Blackwell's Ability — Byron MacLellan — How Horses were shod 



A GREAT deal of credit was given to American trainers 

 in England for some of the successes achieved by 

 horses in their hands and frequently this was laid on 

 with too heavy a brush, and insufficient acknowledg- 

 ment made for what American riders had done. I 

 was often asked what I thought of So-and-so — ^among 

 trainers — and others, but at the time I thought it as 

 well to give evasive replies. One American trainer 

 in England I should say didn't know a horse from a 

 billy-goat although he was a good stableman ! For 

 the matter of that there were many English trainers 

 who were just as bad. Some of them held " proud 

 positions." I could never understand how they got 

 them ; in fact the thing was often one of the greatest 

 jokes imaginable. 



It was generally a case of old-fashioned methods 

 being followed and of a refusal to pay attention to 

 suggestions. For instance one trainer, an Englishman, 

 had some American two-year-olds and one morning 

 he turned up with his long rein and whip. I told him 

 that they had already been broken but he shouted in 

 reply : 



" They've got to be broken over again in the way 

 my father broke them, and," pointing to his son, " that 

 young feller over there when he grows up will do exactly 

 the same as I do. What is good for one generation 

 will be for another. Horses don't change." 



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