The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1889-11-23
srEAM.REAREp COILS.
Fresh Views OF the Famous Palo Al
Training Farm.

ICftW-HEAhED SoG y.
Fresh Views OF the Famous Palo Alto
Training Farm.
"Why do these California bred horses,
both trotters and runners, develop such
tremendous speed at an early age, and
then retire for the rost Of their lives?"
That is q question that has been put
to every horseman of note in the coun-
try, but not one seems able to answer 1t.
A gentleman, horse fancier and now
and then buyer at the California sales,
being much interested in the phenom-
email trotters that come from that re-
gion, went down to Palo Alto to see the
famous Stanford breeding farm.
Talk about prince and princesses OF
effete monarchies being reared in velvet
and fed from gold spoons; the nearest APP
proach to that in this great republic is
this equine principality at Palo Alto.
AS soon as the babies have forgotten
their mothers comes the beginning Of
their life's work. The leading halter
and soft rubber bit kept in the mouth
for half an hour a day is the A B G..
Then comes the kindergarten track to
discover If any of them have natural
gait. Half dozen are put into
the sawdust circle at ones. A man
stands in the middle with long
whip, which he waves furiously,
but no little ono is ever permitted
to feel it's sting. All start around the
ring, first in coltish canter, and then
some little pupil more promising than
the others will strike trot. Soon an
other will do the same. An apple or q
lump of sugar is the reward of merit.
Usually before the class has finished, all
of them will be jogging about on trot.
Then new batch is taken, and in few
weeks forty or fifty fillies and as many
colts have gone through the kindergar-
ten course. Meantime every little one of
either sex is handled and fondled. The
colts and fllies are relentlessly parted
at weaving time, and never see each
other again except at a distance. Co
education of the sexes is frowned upon
at Palo Alto. The little ones are very
tame and follow one around like lot OF
kittens. If you stop in the paddock they
instantly surround you like lot OF
chattering school girls, and begin to
search your pockets with their velvetry
noses for a bit of fruit or sugar. Not
one is ever scolded or permitted to be
frightened in any way. nor is the whip
ever used except as badge of authority.
When the infant aristocracy is bridle-
trained and thoroughly tractable, say at
nine or ten months, and from that to
year old, comes the first introduce
tion to harness. 1t must be remembered
that by this time these youngsters are
TO the non-critical eye almost full-grown
horses. Their legs are strong, their
bodies well filed out their nerks plump,
their eyes bright and intelligent, and
their coats shine like satin. All this is
the result of the forcing process. On the
Stanford farm the two-year-old colt looks
like the well-matured horse of five in
Illinois. At one and one-half years old
begins their hard work on the track. 1t
is then that the most promising are Sc
lected for yearling record.
A building is set apart for the "kin-
dergarten," a great canopy covering a
sawdust ring an eighth of mile long.
This is when the little weanlings, six
and eight months old, are brought to be
taught their first PAGES.
Trainer Gallagher gave mo the his
tory of Sunol, and the life she led
there for two years is the life of all of
them. When Sunol was six months old
she was brought in with twenty other
fllies from the pastures in which their
mothers roamed. The weaving process
is quite easy. The youngsters are put on
steamed grain food at once. In the
morning quart of steamed barley mixed
with bran, in the evening two quarts of
ground barley steamed and moistened
with lime water, is about their daily
diet. That is pretty high food for a
weanling. When l was a boy on the old
farm in Pennsylvania it was a pretty
lucky colt or filly that ever saw any
thing but hay or grass until it was two
years old. But at Palo Alto the babies
are stuffed with grain from the start.
was there in July, and there was no
green food to speak of, with the excep-
ton of green corn tops, of which the lit
tie ones had three diets a week. Even
then it was chopped in a steam cutter
and mixed with bran.-Chicago Herald.