The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1881-07-14
How Kentucky Horses are Trainsa.

One after another beautiful saddle
horses were ridden over the track, NOV
ing along at a gentle, easy gait, hyinr
at rapid Canter, racking or breaking
into trOt as the rider WiIled. All
these horses, I believe, were thorough
bred, and their prices ranged from $500
to $1,000. So well were they gated
and trained that the rider had but to
touch the name in given place or
make a certain signal to have them take
a rack, canter, trOt, run or lOpe. ANY
one can learn to manage these gaits in
q very short lime, as I found from ex-
perience.7 But the method by which
these horses are 50 perfectly trained I
could not learn. Either the trainers do
not know exactly how to impart this in
formation, or they are determined to
keep it to themselves. Some answered
my questions by saying:
1T is easy enough. You can make q
horse do anything you want to. Only
let him know what you want him to do.
You had better wear spurs in riding,
give him his head freely, and if he
takes one gait when you spur him on
the right side, just spur him again there
when you want the same gait Here
q horse passed on q rack, and as the
rider touched him with the TOP Of his
finger on the head, he stru k ont on q
square trot.
'iNoW," said I, chow was shat horse
trained so as to strike a trOt by that
signalP"
why" answered the Kentuekian,
eli
the time they are colts. There is q
combination Of causes" he answered.
''The great majority Of the horses
here have some good blood in them,
and you will find It crossed somewhere
back in their pedigrees. The best
strains Of running and trotting blood
have been taken from here to other
States, and they there fail to produce
the desired results. There is some
thing in blue grass, the water, the at
mOsphere and the general climate in
fuence, and then, as Mr.. Tracy told
you this morning, there is everything
in judiciOus breeding and training. We
force our horses to q gait when they
are one year old, and at three years old
they are pretty vel developed. The
northern men, however, always im-
prove them"
''HoW long have Kentucky horses
held their high placer I queried.
'tNO one hereabOut can tell. know
men who have lived here eighty-fiYs
years, and they state that from their
earliest childhood they have heard Of
the superiority of our horses. Their
fathers before them had the same story
to tell. The fact is, that somewhere in
the past there was brought into this
State a pure strain Of thorough blood, |
derived from the best stock of the /
mother world, and it has transmitted I
its qualities from sire TO son to the pres
ent time. It is a lsmentable fact that
we have not the exact data upon which |
to base history Of the Kentucky
horse"
The fastest horses in the world have /
been bred and trained in this neighbOr- /
hood. Maud Stone, better known as /
Maud s., record, 2:103; WedgeWood, /
2:I9; WOOdfOrd MambrinO, 2:24; |
2;194; Dick Moore, 2:22; John |
Morgan, 2:24; indianapolis, 2:21; Vol /
taire, 2:20, are but a few of the race
horses that have been sent out Of Ken /
tueky, while the number Of her carriage, |
saddle and trOtting horses that have /
been sold here. and are now scattered |
throughout our large cities, could no /
more be calculated than one could /
count the trees Of the forest.