WAY OF GOING— THE FUNCTION 



27 



combination of both. Only the highest education, in accordance 

 with the strongest natural aptitude, can accomplish the greatest 

 attainment. Hence, it is hardly worth while to spend time and 

 money in educating a colt in ways to which he is not adapted. 

 It is a difficult and unsatisfactory task to school a bom trotter 

 to an acceptable show of action. Ample proof of the accuracy 

 of this statement, reversed, is found in the earlier days of horse 

 shows in this country. It was common to find single-minded 

 horsemen resorting to all sorts of ingenious ways and means of 



Fig. 26. — Bow -kneed. 



Fig. 27. — Too close at 

 ground. 



Fig. 28. — Too wide at 

 ground. 



preventing a horse from going high in order to make a trotter of 

 him. They often gave up in despair, and sacrificed him to the 

 knowing buyer, who, by changing tactics and schooling him along 

 the line of action for which he had a strong inclination, finally 

 turned him out a show horse of note. If, on the other hand, we 

 take a natural character and develop it by artificial means, we 

 may expect results far in advance of what could otherwise be 

 obtained. No race or show horse, of any class, comes to his high 

 degree of proficiency without an education. The trotter must 

 not only be trained to make him physically fit for the race but he 

 must be taught to step. The same is true of actors, saddle horses. 



