MAKING SPEED. 49 



(Note. — The reader will note a reference to the training paddock 

 system used at Palo Alto Farm. This was an improvement over 

 the ordinary paddock. Corners were rounded ofE, so that when colts 

 were chased around they would not trot up Into a corner and 

 stop. Later two covered tracks were constructed, one 313 feet 

 in circumference, the other 506 feet around. After the colts 

 were thoroughly halter broken they were turned into these tracks 

 and chased about to develop their speed. The Falo Alto miniature 

 track system had quite a vogue, as did the other old-time plan of 

 bitching a colt by the side of a runner, but both methods have 

 practically gone out of use.) 



Edna the Great, 2:29^, former champion year- 

 ling trotter on a half-mile track, was trained and 

 driven by Dr. W. A. Barber, a dentist of Spring- 

 field, Ohio, who finds recreation in horses. The 

 following is his own story: 



"Edna proved to be a bear-cat .to subdue, be- 

 ing unbroken when I bought her early in her yearling 

 form. We four(d it necessary to pad her stall with 

 baled straw, in order that she would not do injury 

 to herself in her attempts to get away from her tor- 

 mentors. Halter breaking and bitting required all of 

 April and a portion of May before we hitched her. 

 She was a broncho when we hitched her. The brush 

 system was not used, as she had all the speed on 

 tap that was "necessary. She was low in flesh and 

 gentle exercise was all that we aimed to give her for 

 the next few weeks. She was hitched daily for a 

 couple of weeks at a time, then a run in the paddock 

 ■for a few days and she began to take on flesh. With 

 an abundance of feed, plenty of grass and a tonic 

 to tone up her system, we started in to give her a 

 mile every morning, very slow at first, with a brush 

 home, gradually increasing the distance that she was 

 stepped at speed until we were going a pretty fair 

 quarter in almost every workout, keeping always in 

 mind not to ask her for more than she could do 

 well within herself, never at any time did I carry 

 her to the extreme limit of her effort, or to the 

 point of exhaustion. The chief thing in the training 

 of Edna the Great was to be able to say whoa' often 

 enough, as she had ambition enough to try to beat 

 any horse on the track. It was not very long before 

 she began to go miles. A mile around three minutes 

 seemed a romp for her, and she was given a mile 



