Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1872-05-04

bog and TO ride him. used to feed him
at o'clock, and bg mighty particular
about his oats, to sift and winnow them,
then to water him. Then I'll clean him,
and at ! would ride him until IL. First
starting on walk. then cauter, aid
giving him spurts when he felt like it.
Mostly / was home by IL, and then /
had TO rub him down, clean and make
him nice and dry. I'd feed him then,
get my own dinner at half past twelve,
aud at having him out again until A.
working him gently, and never as hard
as IN the morning. But / amt told you
about riding. 1t didn't come natural. !
guess Sdnd-6oy knowed he had news
boy on his back, and wanted to ship his
load, for just ds long as / rode him, no
matter when | took bun out, he always
would commence by standing Oh his
hind legs and cavorting round that way.
First time got ON him lie did that /
tried to hang on by the rens, name, any
thing, but Job Haskins says be, "You
tailor's prentice, don't go Juggling on
that there BIT, or you'll ave i'm down
hon you, and break both your blessed
hecks." Of course, hearing that, let
so, and so just slid off easy. But some
how or other | got the hang of it after
while, and got TO love it. They said |
had tirst-rate seat--but that wasn't all
that was necessary. l must have, they
say, Judgment about it. 1t aiut so hard
to keep onto horse that's going fast
for after while you get SO into his mo-
tion that horse aud YOU is all one thing ::
the trouble is to regulate his speed, to
be cunning about it-be up to tricks
and all that sort of thing. Now, run
ming a race horse is one thing, and stop
ping race-horse is another. You 90 n
trying to bring him too with steady
pull, and you will cut your hands into
for your pains. You have to give the
Dit u see-saw kind of motion, and the
horse is taught to understand that. slack
ems his gate and gradually comes to
walk. But for all that, there is boilers
that you couldn't stop no more than you
could flash of lightning. TO show
you how much | knew about it, afic
had been a month or two at it. he was
put on the mile track for race, and the
Instructions was for each one 10 do his
best. put for it, got in the ruck for II
while, then gradually got clear Of every
other horse, and won by three lengths.
was mighty proud of it, tell you,
when Haskns, says he to me, making
use of an observation that ain't exactly
pretty to hear, "You tool, you, tha. amt
riding; your horse was running away
with you"
81 l was well fed-plenty to eat, as they
wanted us strong and healthy. Wages
was ten dollars II month. OF course, it
wasn't exactly the kind of place like
Sunday-schoo!. Horse, horse, was the
only thing boys talked about, and the
only reading was sporting papers. The
greatest ambition was TO win race, and
once we all went to the station only to
see boy, and nigger at that, who had
won n race somewhere down South
Haskins knew all about every horse that
ever was born, and how we used to lis
ten TO him. You see, he had been in the
business all his life, and he would spin
US yarns of how he had won this race,
or that handicap, and how every bone in
his body had most been broken with fall
ing over hurdles, when he rode horses
for the Marquis OF Hasting. Yes, that
was the uame of the English sport he
used to work for. The boys wasn't ex-
actly bad, you know, but goodness sakes,
how they used to gamble. Yes, | gam
bled, too. 1t was bluff and euchre, and
| guess every cent of my wages went
that way. Pve seen boys of twelve
lose the shirt off their backs. Sunday,
save a short spell in the morning of Just
walking the horses, used to he our gen
eral gambling day. Some Of the jock
eys was in training to be footist-that's
pedestrians-and Sundays was their
race days. One thing / didn't like was
the sweating process. They used to put
me in room, with Stats in it, with the
horses, two or three mt n time, and wasn't
it hot? Not only that, but it was
mighty dangerous. The horses got
kind OF mad abou. it, aud was kicking
plunging around promlscuous like. Me
and the horses was getting cooked at
the same time, like killing two ducks
with the same stone. That was bad
enough, but then again they would
make me bury myself up to my neck in
the manure pile; that was killing. How
ever, kept lively all the time, only
there was one thing dead against mel
would keep a-growing-not taller like,
but chunky.
l got to be very fond of Sdnd-5oy,
and used to pet him. II any other boy
abused him, it was a stand-up fight all
around. You hear them novel books
talk about lover and his mistress-that
is Just the way | felt toward that horse.
Some part of the training wasn't nice.
On bad days, when it was too muddy
or sloppy to take the course or the road,
we used to ride in a ring like at a circus.
Haskins would be in the middle with an
awful big whip, and if any horse Jagged
he'd get it +; sometimes it would come SO
sudden that a fellows legs would be
likely to he wrenched off by the hind
horse tearing past you; but as Sand
bog was mighty sory, We didn't often
catch it.
When Spring came most all the horses
was in good order; all of them but Sand
bon. Somehow he Wouldn't fatten
maybe he was all spirit-like and no body.
| seed the trainer watch him and me
steady. / kind of conceited one day he
wasn't quite up to his work; he kind of
ILL al. L..