Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1891-09-30
STEAM-RRARED COLTS.
Fresh Views of the Great Palo Alto
Training Farm-Rearing of Sunol.


Felop such tremendous speed at an
EARLY age, and then retire for the rest
If their livesH"
! That is question that has been put
10 every horseman of note in the counI
Try, but not one seems able to answer
t. A gentleman, horse fancier and
aow and then buyer at the California
Iales, being much interested in the
phenomenal trotters that come from
hat region, went down to Palo Alto
o see the famous Stanford breeding
| farm.
Talk about princes and princesses of
.flete monarchies being reared in vel
vet and fed from gold spoons; the
nearest approach to that in this great
republic is this equine principality at
Palo Alto. AS soon as the babies have
i forgotten their mothers comes the be-
ginning of their life's work. The lead
| Ing halter and soft rubber bit kept in
the mouth for half an hour in the day
ls the A B G.. Then comes the kinder
garten track to discover if any of them
have natural gait. Half dozen are
put into the sawdust circle at once. A
man stands in the middle with a long
whip, which he waves furiously, but
no little one is ever permitted to feel
its sting. All start around the ring,
first into a coltish canter, and then
some little pupil more promising than
others will strike trot. Soon another
will do the same. An apple or a
lump of sugar is the reward of merit.
Usually before the class has finished
all of them will be jogging about on a
trot. Then a new batch is taken, and
in a few weeks forty or fifty fillies,
and as many colts have gone through
he kindergarten course. Meantime
every little one of either sex is handled
and fondled. The colts and fillies are
relentlessly parted at weGning 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 fol-
low one around like lot of kittens.
If you stop in the paddock they in
stantly surround you like a lot of
chattering school girls, and begin to
search your pockets with their velvety
noses for 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 a badge of authority.
When the infant aristocracy is bridle-
trained and thoroughly tractable, say
at 9 or 10 months, and from that to a
year old, comes the first introduction
to harness. 1t must be remembered
hat by this time these youngsters are
o the non-critical eve almost full
grown horses. Their legs are strong,
heir bodies well filled out, their necks
plump, their eyes bright and intelli-
GENT, and their coats shine like satin.
All this is the result of the forcing pro-
cess. On the Stanford farm the 9
year-old colt looks like the well-ma-
.ured horse of in Illinois. AT 1 10
wears old begins their hard work on
The track. 1t is then that the most
promising are selected for a yearling
record.
y building is set apart for the "kin.
1ergarten," great canopy covering a
.awdust ring an eighth of a mile long.
This is when the little weanlings, six
and eight months old, are brought to
be taught their first PAGES.
Trainer Gallagher gave me 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
DID she was brought in with twenty
other fillies 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 bar
ley 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 |
was boy on the old farm in Pennsyl-
yania it was a pretty lucky colt or filly
that ever saw anything 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 exception of green
corn tops, of which the little ones had
three diets a week. Even then it was
chopped in a steam cutter and mixed
with bran.