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Handling of the Colt, — Tlie*Trot a Natural Gait. — Great Speed the Sesull 

 of Long Handling. — Method for the Colt. — Moderation best in Feeding. — 

 Early Maturity followed by Early Decay. — The Trotter should live 

 Many Years. — Feeding of Weanlings. — No Physio unless the Colt is 

 Sick. — Feeding of the Yearling. — The Starving System worse than 

 High Feeding. 



THE training of tte trotting-horse is really to be com- 

 menced from the time lie is handled when a colt ; for it 

 is not simply the putting of him in s*ucti. bodily condition as 

 may enable him to exert all his powers, but also the careful 

 and continued cultivation of his gifts as a trotter. What- 

 ever encourages his tendency to make the trot his best way 

 of going, is a part of his training ; and therefore the natural 

 disposition to trot must be improved from the very first. I 

 have heard it said by some that there is no natural disposi- 

 tion in a horse to trot, or rather was none until men had 

 handled him, and induced him to use that mode of action. It 

 is a very common notion that the horse has but two natural 

 paces, — the walk and the gallop, — and that trotting is wholly 

 artificial. I have seen this set down in some books, but I 

 venture to deny it. My conviction is, that the trot is natu- 

 ral to the horse ; and I feel bound to give some reasons for 

 my belief. In the first place, then, I ask whether a colt 

 can now be found any where that does not trot sometimes, 

 and that when he is by the side of his dam, before ever the 

 hand of a man has been laid upon him ? If it is said that 

 this results from the long domestication of his ancestors, 

 my reply will be, that it happens among the produce of 

 horses whoae ancestors for ^ more than a century — ay, for 

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