Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1892-09-24
TRAINING PICS 70 RACE.
A c.'isdsniaa experimenting with rA'


Prospects ofsuocess- He Proceeds.
Ever since HealY's pig Casey COW
cred himself with glory and renown
by fighting the rattlesnake Mars, says
the San Francisco News Letter,
Michenfelder has been thinking of
raising a breed of athletic porkers,
whose feats Of agility end skill would
be told and retold from the rising to
the setting Of the sun. With this OBJ
ject In view he has been securing the
country far and wide, and advertising
in most extensive manner, for hard
hogs, whose anatomy should contain
a high percentage of muscle and
sfnew and be practically devoid of
fat. He has now secured q choice
litter, which promises we'll to come
up to the required standard. and
every morning, with the regularity
OF good race horse breeder, he takes
the little chaps out to train. He be-
gins In the early dawn by giving them a
stiff walk up to the reservoir and back,
and whenever one of the youngsters
gets too fresh or sulks on the way he
puts his little curly tail in clothespins;
and IT there is any punishment that
is more morally degrading and hurt
full to the amour propre Of a small
pig than another, it is having the
spring taken out of his curly tail by
having the said tail weighted down
by clothespins. After their walk he
takes them back to their yard and
gives them cold shower bath with
a garden hose. Then they get light
breakfast of weak swill, after which
they are given half hours rest for
the purpose of facilitating digestion.
At 1870 the speed trials begin, and
as Michenfelder himself has too much
business to attend to to personally
superintend the matter, he has hit
upon an ingenious labor saving device
whereby he can make those pigs run
like wildf1re without exerting him
self at all. He just strolls downtown
with a piece of liver in his hand and
coaxes up Healy's dog Jack and
Black Pedro from the Pioneer, as
well as Neff's Cy and Pearce's three
dogs, and half dozen other stray
CANNES that have nothing in particu-
lar to occupy their attention. These
he 'tsicks" on the porkers, and when
the dogs are 'sicked" it is comfort
to watch the pigs run. The ''sick-
ing" process lasts from twenty to
thirty-flve minutes, by which time
the athletes are swimming in their
own perspiration and the dogs are be-
ginning to be tagged out. They are
permitted to rest until noon, at which
hour Michenfelder rounds up few
more dogs and gives his pets more ex-
ercise. By this process he has reduced
his herd to the narrow dimensions of
fence rails, but he has endowed them
with a speed heretofore unknown
among porkers.
Healy has another string out of the
old Casey stock training in Oakland,
and Kofoed and Hanson are also
starting speeding styes There will
be at least four good styes of racing
pigs owned in this city before the
fall, when it is proposed that a pig
race track be opened here and purses
put up by an association for the en-
couragement of the sport. 1t is more
than likely that sports in Colma,
Redwood, San Mateo and adjoining
districts will follow Michenfelder's
example and raise several other
strings of racers II so, the fall meet
ing of the Pig Racing Association
will assuredly be big success, and
the popularity of the sport will soon
become widespread. One thing in
favor of the new pastime is its moder-
ate expense when compared with
horse racing or coursing with grey.
hounds. Pigs are cheap and easily
handled, and it costs less per annum
20 maintain flrst-class sty Of crack
running pigs than it does to train
the smallest string of third-rate plugs
that ever appeared at country fair
horse race. :