32 EVERY MAN HIS OWN TRAINER. 



beat her easy in 2:21^. Then it was amusing to hear the 

 arguments between the old man Wilson and his son as they 

 laid on the grass in the shade of a tree. The old man would 

 say, "If you had done as I wanted to, we would have plenty 

 of money for this race." The son would respond in about 

 the sam'e words, and I don't know but they are quarreling yet 

 over it ; but that did not get their money back. 



I will give you an example of conditioning these two 

 horses, as they were both of different temperaments and re- 

 quired different treatment. Great Eastern was delicate and a 

 light feeder, although he was so large ahorse. He would not 

 eat more than ten or twelve quarts of oats a day and a little 

 wheat or corn, and not more than one pint of that. He re- 

 quired but little work as he always had his speed. I had my 

 man jog him on the road to wagon five or six miles a day and 

 not faster than a four or five mile an hour gait, rarely starting 

 the sweat on him in his work. I gave him plenty of grass 

 each day, except the days I was going to speed him. That 

 was twice a week. Tuesday was the first day as I never make 

 it a practice to work a horse on Sunday. That day he was 

 idle. Monday he would get his road work, Tuesday I gave him 

 a mile and repeat, a heat in 2:40, another in 2:35. On Friday 

 he would get three or four heats, if sharp and strong, four, if 

 not, only three, commencing at 2:40, next heat 2:35 ; if, only 

 three heats that day the third heat would be 2:27 or 2:28, not 

 any faster. If I was giving him four heata the third would be 

 2:32, fourth heat 2:27 or 2:28. Then at night I would give 

 him a mash and wash his legs and feet with nice luke-warm 

 water, pack his feet with clay, spoken of before, and also give 

 him all the good timothy hay he could eat. I never put a 

 muzzle on or had a sweat hood on him but once while I had 

 him. This was a horse that sort of conditioned himself. As 

 I said, he always had his speed and only required work enough 

 to keep up his muscle. If he was worked stiff and given fast 

 miles he would lose his flesh and appetite and be no good. 

 He always wanted to feel well to trot. I used to tell Tom 



