EVERY MAN HIS OWN TRAINER. 6l 



Here is another ease where you need a bright, trusty, 

 sober groom, as more is depending on him than his driver, as 

 the horse is under his care all the time ; if the horse is a little 

 off, and the groom is competent and observant, he knows the 

 cause. The driver comes and works the horse, finds he is not 

 just right, comes in and says to the groom, "What is the matter 

 with this horse? Does he eat good ? Is his water all right ? 

 Have you discovered anything wrong ?" Perhaps, after ques- 

 tioning him for a time, he will tell you he did not eat well 

 this morning, or says, " I have not seen him stale since yester- 

 day." If he had been the right kind of a groom he would 

 have told the driver the horse was not right before working 

 him, and he would have saved an injury to the horse and 

 brought him right much sooner, as the work he got was a 

 detriment to him. 



You will find the trainer that has the best success with a 

 stable of horses is the man who is willing to put up himself in 

 humble quarters in order to be near his horses, in spite of the 

 fact that his expense account allows him first-class hotel fare 

 in the city. There is many a good horseman who is in too 

 much of a hurry to change his clothes and get into town after 

 giving his horse a hard bruising race or after stiff work, in 

 giving him a strong repeat, telling the groom to cool him out 

 so and so. If in a race and the horse got beaten and the 

 driver is out of sight, the groom don't do as he is told, says 

 perhaps, " The sucker, he is not worth taking care of,'' and 

 don't do half what he was told to do. The driver comes out 

 the next or second day and finds his horse a little sore, per- 

 haps he is coughing. He says to his man, " What is the mat- 

 ter with this horse. Did you do as I told you last night in 

 cooling him out?" Of course the man says yes. You could 

 not expect him to say he disobeyed orders. It is a fact I have 

 seen a race between the driver and groom to see which would 

 get into town first after a hard race. The groom might think 

 the horse not sufificiently cooled out to feed and he would say, 

 '' I will give him his supper when I get-back," and as the re- 



