84 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 
life and energy. ‘When he went back to the stall 
after his wonderful mile at Stockton,” relates a writer 
in the San Francisco Examiner, “Arion was as full 
of play as any frisky young thing just out of the 
paddock. He had just trotted a mile that would kill 
many great horses, but he caught hold of the groom’s 
coat with his teeth, shook it as a terrier does a rat, 
and nosed around the pockets for sugar, of which 
he is inordinately fond. Assuring himself that the 
groom was out of the way, he let fly with one hind 
foot, and struck the wall behind him with a bang like 
the report of a pistol; then he looked around to see 
how big a hole he had made in the wood.” Arion, it 
is said, enjoys admiration, and likes to be looked at, 
talked to, and photographed, “He loves everybody. 
There is not a streak of meanness in his composition. 
He would not harm a mangy dog that came into his 
stall to sleep.” He has “large, soft eyes.” 
In the course of this brief survey it must have 
occurred to the reader that there is one respect in 
which all the most distinguished trotters have resem- 
bled one-another, and that is in their nervous energy, 
their high spirit and courage. That latent flame 
which the Washington Hollow horseman detected in 
the eye of Flora Temple came out afterward in the 
resolute bursts of speed with which she finished her 
fastest miles. Dexter was represented as being “chock 
full of fire and deviltry,” and capable of jumping like 
acat. Hiram Woodruff, as we have seen, spoke of his 
“wicked head.” Goldsmith Maid had a strong will 
of her own, and the excitement which she betrayed on 
the eve of a race showed how fine was her organiza- 
tion. “She would stand quietly enough,” says her 
