The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-08-04
THE JOCKEY.
Some of His Tricks and How He Degrades
the Sport of Horse Racing.

Although, according to the dictionary,
one of the definitions of jockey Is "a
man who rides a horse race" there are
other definitions which describe jockey
as "a cheat; one who deceives or takes
undue advantage in trade" Other defin1-
tions of the word are to cheat; to
trick; to jostle by riding against" All
horse dealers are not absolutely dishon-
est, but there is certainly very large
proportion of men whose business it is to
sell horses, or to make money out OF
them in races, who do engage in very
questionable practices in order to adj
vance their interests. The ethical philos-
ophy of the horse-trader may be summed
up in the saying, "your eyes are your
cheat" meaning that you must use your
own Judgment in "a horse deal" and not
believe anything he tells you.
Horses are "doctored up" not only for
the purposes of sale, but for racing pur-
poses, not always, or very often for the
better class of races, but for the hundreds
of competitions that take place at State
and county fairs and on private racing
grounds in the rural districts. These
remarks / shall make, therefore, about
remedying the defects of horses will APP
ply not only to horse dealers engaged in
selling and trading horses, but to the
Jockeys of the turf; because it is often
the case that a very poor animal, OF good
stock, can, with the assistance OF artificial
methods, win or lose a race. He may die
l.. ga he h1It If he
comes in a winner his owner will be sat
isefd.
If horse has chronic lameness in
either foot the jockey can inject into the
foot a solution of cocaine, which, for
the time being, will render the horse
sound; that sit will dull the sensibility
to pain for from half an hour to an hour
and half, and the horse will act as IL
he was sound. Another method in
case like this is to sever the nerves OF the
foot, This deprives the lower part OF the
limb of all sensation and the horse will
go sound for perhaps a year, when the
nerves will form together again.
Foundered horses are made sound by
nerving them in the manner just de-
scribed, and keeping them in a soaking
tub OF mud box. By this method the in
Illumination is alllayed for day. In
railroad car stables they have a series of
mud stalls for foundered and sore-footed
horses, and in which twenty can stand at
a time One day they work them and
the next day they put them in this box.
If the animals were worked two consecu-
tive days they would be so sore-footed
from travelling over the stones that they
would be unfit for use. Such horses are
generally shod with as heavy a shoe as
they can possibly carry, because the
heavier the iron the lighter the concus-
sion of the foot on the ground. 1t is on
the same principle as if | put sheet
iron on your knee, a good blow would
break your knee; but if put an anvil
on your knee and hit heavy blow on
that, it would not hurt you. For found
cred horses that come down with the heel
first they use rocker-shoe, having roll
Ter motion, so that when the heel strikes
the foot will roll instead of striking the
pavement abruptly.
There is no such thing as a chest
founder. The trouble commonly called
by that name is due to the wasting away
of the muscles, on account OF atrOphy or
insufficient use of the limb, caused by
lameness in the foot.
At horse sales and races before the AMI
NAL is brought out he is made to appear
"livelyn Before he is taken from the
stable a man, having saturated his finger
with turpentine or capslcum, will insert
it at the lower extremity of the aliment-
ary canal This will have effect of
making the horse carry his tail in very
fine shape. 1t makes him 'lively"
simply on account of the pain the agent
causes
brought out he is jostled about for
awhile. If horse is troubled with spa
vim the first few steps or movements he
makes are very lame and labored, but
when he is once in action he becomes
gradually better. Anyone may be al
ways
SUSPICIOUS OF A HORSE
if man cracks whip over him and
makes him dance around" in the stall.
This is done for the purpose of limbering
the horse up, especially if he has a
SPAWN.
The leopard may not be able to change
his spots, but good jockey can take an
color. He will use nitrate of silver (per-
oxide of hydrogen) to bleach different
parts of the body SO as to make them
match. Suppose you have team OF sor-
rels: one had silver name and tail and
the other had not. The jockey would
bleach the name and tail of the. latter.
If star was wanted in the forehead he
could put it there, or produce Iof you a
white nose, one or more white legs,
bleaching them so as to make them
match. If horses tail is not big
enough or symmetrical, he can switch
in some false tail, just as the ladies do
with their hair
A horse will show his age by the hol-
lowness over his eyes. In such case the
| jockey will introduce little tube, and,
by blowing in air, will cause the holloWs
| to puff up, and if the chest or shoulder
of horse is atrophied-what is known
as sweeney of the shoulder-he will in
troduce little tube and blow the skin.
This condition in horse can always be
detected by pulling the skin, which will
crackle under the touch; it will not have
the solid feeling ofafesh.
In regard to teeth young hoses, natur-
ally, have what is known as Soups" ex-
cavations, marked black, which disap-
pear when they become older, being worn
off. The jockey, to mislead those who
are interested in the horse, will artifici-
ally excavate or cut out the surface of
the teeth and blacken them with nitrate
of silver. This can always be detected
in a "bishoped mouth" as it is called,
by the absence of the ring of enamel
around this black cup, it being always
present in young horses.
The shapes ofssa horses teeth from youth
I