444 LIFE WITH THE TROTTERS. 



The secret is all in a nutshell : You have trained more 

 systematically, more humanely and more consistently with 

 all rules that govern health and strength. Your colt has 

 never been whipped into obedience, and made sulky; has 

 never been overdriven, and left to cool out too suddenly, 

 xind is willing to do his best, and tries to without being- 

 afraid. The old farmers that had colts in the same race and 

 w^ere beaten ten or fifteen seconds, gather around and look 

 your colt over, and declare: " He must be overtrained, as he 

 acted just like an old trotter," and they will beat him sure 

 another year. They forget to look at his breeding, but not 

 his make-up; and some old deacon with a good deal of sense 

 takes out his tape line and finds that the colfc's mechanical 

 proportions measure exactly to his notion of the correct 

 form. Had he looked in the catalogue and noticed that the 

 ■colt is standard under Rule 6, he might have known he 

 would have measured right, for he has been bred for sev- 

 eral generations in a way that begets trotting conform- 

 ation. 



You ship the colt home in the same careful way, and it 

 will not need many instructions to the rubber to look after 

 him carefully, for if you do not look out now, he will x^ay 

 his entire attention to this colt and neglect everything else. 

 It is best not to overdo the attention; keep on in an 

 even way, recollecting that the colt has no mark that is 

 admitted upon the records. To get a record he wUl have to 

 trot a mile. In this locality there will be no opportunity to 

 start in a race for yearlings, except the ' ' Midway Breeders' 

 Meeting," which is now a fixed yearly event, takes place in 

 October, and is open to all. It draws largely from New 

 York, Pennsylvania, and JSTew Jersey, and is the only one 

 outside of a " State Breeders' " meeting, held in this por- 

 tion of the country, to enable breeders to give their young- 

 things records, in actual contest; and its first meeting was 

 liberally patronized. 



The colt arrives home safely, and is at once made the 

 pet of the farm and due respect is paid him which of course 



