240 TRAINING FOR SPEED. 



pull and preserve the trot by means of substituting a severe 

 bit for a plain snaffle, for it is not severity on the mouth 

 that he requires, but a sort of stay upon which he can support 

 himself in the flying trot, and without which he is afraid to 

 put forth his best efforts. 



Hiram Woodruff, in his "Trotting Horse of America," 

 gives an old-time instance of this kind in the old trotting horse 

 Alexander, that Avas taken to England many years ago, and 

 could not be made to trot a bit by those who had purchased him 

 expecting great things. Afterwards William Wheelan went 

 out with Eattler, and the gentleman who had Alexander no 

 sooner saw him ride the former against the Birmingham mare 

 than they got him to go and look at Alexander. 



He found him well cared for, but on being shown the cruel 

 bit with which he had been used our young American ceased 

 to wonder why he would not . trot for his English owner, and 

 when Wheelan had changed his hard bridle bit for a plain 

 snaffle he demonstrated that the American-bred horse could 

 trot on English just as well as American soil when properly 

 handled. 



I give this as a case in point, showing that a horse relied 

 on his driver to steady him in his great bursts of speed, and 

 which he could not do with a cruel, harsh bit. 



I want my colt to be driven with a light hand and a loose 

 check ; he will then swing off at his own gait, whereas, if you 

 put weight on the bit and check him up taut, he will be fight- 

 ing the bit, unbalanced in gait, and in no temper to trot ; and 

 if this treatment is continued for awhile the colt will have a 

 hard mouth and will learn to lug on the bit. 



Marvin says that Sunol would have been a puller under any 

 but the most careful treatment. "Whenever she showed an 

 inclination to ' lug ' I would let her have her head, talk to her, 

 and let her go along as easily as possible, without being hard 

 held, and she gradually forgot to pull ; but had I fought her 

 with the bit she would have been ruined." 



