S26 LIFE AVITII THE TROTTERS. 



After you give your horse his day's work, you then 

 decide what work he needs and when he ought to have it 

 again. I think a day's work like that given him once a 

 week, with moderate jogging the balance of the time and a 

 little opening-out the day before you want to work him 

 again will be all that vdll be necessary for him to have. I 

 hate to have a horse continually worked without regard to 

 system or time, as in that way you never know just how 

 much work you do give him. The nearer you get to your 

 race, the shorter work the horse should have; that is, instead 

 •of giving him four or five heats, give him two or three, with 

 •occasional brushes at nearly the top of his speed. If you 

 have a horse that is duU and lazy, don't be continually 

 clucking and whipping him along. When you do speak to 

 him, give him to understand that you do mean just what 

 you say. When you work such a horse have plenty of com- 

 pany. Give him a little the best of it. Grive him the lead 

 the most of the time, and don't let the other horses out-trot 

 him. In that way you will encourage him and he will take 

 more interest in his work. If I have a horse that has a bad 

 leg, or in fact almost any other weakness, the day after his 

 "work I give him absolute rest and put in the time doctoring 

 the weak place. In that way you will be able to keep the 

 inflammation and fever, if there is any, subdued until the 

 leg becomes strong again. If you have a horse that you 

 expect simply to trot exhibition miles, he will not need 

 nearly as long and hard woi'k as a horse that is going to trot 

 in races of mile heats, three in five. When I train a horse 

 for exhibition I train him. for speed alone, as I have found 

 that an ordinarily game horse, if he is conditioned to go a 

 •quarter of a mile at the top of his speed and properly rated, 

 ought to go a good mUe. 



I think there is no place where scientific driving counts 

 for more than in trotting a horse against the watch. The 

 watch n^er makes a mistake, and if you have a close race 

 with it and you make one that costs you the money. Avery 

 ;good way for a beginner, I think, is to keep a memorandum 



