EVERY MAN HIS OWN TRAINER. 55 



of them are willing to do anything and everything while you 

 are there, but as soon as you are out of sight some of them 

 will grab a blanket, lie down and go to sleep, and let the horse 

 take care of .himself ; others will go to kicking and pounding 

 a horse for something he had done an hour before when you 

 were there, but at that time he did not dare do it ; perhaps 

 the horse from fright would jump, around and strain himself 

 some way, the next morning when you arrive at the stable you 

 find the horse lame, the skin knocked off in places. Possibly he 

 fell down or jumped through a door quick, scaring and in- 

 juring his hip. You might study, ask, guess and cross-exam- 

 ine until your head ached and no one would know how it 

 happened, and when you questioned the groom too closely he 

 might say he must have got cast last night ; I never saw that 

 until this morning. I have had this occur when perhaps half 

 a dozen men or boys stood by and saw it, but I could not get 

 one of them to acknowledge that they knew anything about 

 it. Perhaps in three months afterwards, when I had dis- 

 charged the man and he was in some other part of the coun- 

 try, and the horse had recovered or was recovering from his 

 injuries, one of the other men would say, " Boss, did not you 

 know what ailed that horse?" I would say no. His reply 

 would be, " I do ; Bill knocked him down, or perhaps went to 

 whipping him, and he jumped through the door and hurt liis 

 hip, strained his ankle or bruised his knee," which would make 

 a man boil like a dinner pot. Many a horse is spoiled in this 

 way and thrown out of training and the public will say they 

 are no good, they can't stand work, they will never amount 

 to anything, when if he had a good groom he might have 

 made a 2:20 or 2:15 horse, which was then out of the ques- 

 tion, all owing to a bad tempered groom. I have often said 

 to myself, how fortunate it is for men that horses cannot talk, 

 as they might speak unkind words of their driver as well as 

 their groom. I tell you that kindness and nursing in the 

 stable has as much to do in developing speed as driving. I 

 have had men that would get a horse to eat from ten to 



