The Savannah morning news., 1902-01-12

in the form which they present in pri-
vate life. so as speak. If this were
not generally understood horse shows
might sink far below their present
standard.
Yankees Artificial Productions
Everyone familiar with the subject
knows, however, that wonderful va
riety of inventions and appliances mas
been used in this century TO attaln
certain results with the descendants
of the equine pair that Noah fed with
sodden hay and damp oats until the
Ark grounded upon the topmost crest
of Ararat. Even the very novice has
learned that the trot was not a natural
gait for the pampered jades which speu
over the steppes of Asia in the days
of Tamerlane. The trotting motion mas
been cultivated and developed, like the
high knee hackney action. America Is
acknowledged all over the world TO
have been more prolific in the produc-
ton of inventions than any other coun>
try. The fast trotter was Yankee
construction When Columbus discoV-.
cred this continent-and for years art
erward-the trotting quadruped as
speed machine had never been thought
Of. Ancient Greece and ancient Rome
with all their glories, never sent
trotter to the front and in the archives
of Babylon and Nineveh, Egypt ana
Ethiopia, no mention of the TIMING
watch was ever found. Arabia and
Barbary had their sleep patricians OF
ANTIQUE equine ancestry, and those ORR
entail horses could run long distances
over the sunbaked sands in heated
rivalry with the ships of the desert,
and dromedaries of high descent. There
was no trotting, either. The walk, the
canter the gallon, the dead run were
the equine gaits when Job chanted MS
wonderful verses in praise OF the bat
tie charger, and when the Moore over
ran Spain many centuries later. 1t
was reserved for the Yankee OF the
present age to amaze the world with
the American trotter, PAGER and road
ster-all artificial and not natural
products. The thoroughbred's lineage
can be traced back to the Oldest ana
proudest strains of Yemen, passing
through the importations from North
ern Africa to England in the reign of
Charles IL The running horse of to-
day in Great Britain, America, France,
Germany, Austria, Italy, Russia, Aus
tralia and New Zealand represents the
results of long-continued and careful
selection and breeding, and the con-
slant study of the most effective meth
DDS of developing the undaunted spirit,
the indomnitable courage and the un-
rivalled speed. Therefore, to some eX-
tent. the thoroughbred RUNNER of this
generation is an artificial product and
a delicate, dollhouse creature, which
requires almost as much medical at
tention as an invalid heiress. Never
theless, the runner is not sent TO the
post with a complicated array of har-
ness with q network of straps and
buckles, of lines and hopples, similar
to the intricate machinery which has
been used to correct the gait and in
crease the speed of certain American
trotters and PAGERS. Some of the ami
mails that have gained starting rec
ords on the trotting tracks of the
United States CARRIED almost as much
rigging tophamper, life lines, sheets
and bobstays as a 70-footer in light
breeze off Newport. and were comical
and ridiculous to look upon. Never
theless, these winners of laurels, COW
cred as they were with an interlac1ng
network of all sorts of queer contrap-
tions, whirled a sulky over the ground
with amazing velocity. That elaborate
equipment of peculiar boots, hopples,
brides, bits, burrs and strange con-
trivances enabled them to break rec
ords.
High Knee Action Cultivated.
Generations ago in England high
knee action on the part of hackneys
was brought about in various ways.
Some of the experts enlisted the aid
of surgeons, who treated various mus
Giles and tendons and joints with diver
sified appliances, and UP in the air
went the hackney's hoofs. Another
practice for the securing of lofty-knee
action was the frequent exercise of the
horse in deep straw. He could not fail
to acquire a skyward movement when
I,a n raise his feet mt of
the straw at every stride. Still, another
plan was to put heavy shoes on the
fore feet, and then drive the hackney
through ploughed ground. Up his knees
would jump toward his nose, and the
desired climbing toward the stars be-
came habitual.
Rubbing the legs of horses of all
classes with lotions and linaments of
every imaginable concoction is an old
story. The binding of the limbs with
tight bandages to keep down swell
ings and to restrain tendencies to
lameness and weakness was undoubt-
eddy common on the plains of Shinar
long before Jehu, the son of Nimshi,
fieeced the progenitor of Mark Twain
out of nighthawk chariot fare. Excep-
tional skill in the treatment of the
hoofs, ankles and limbs of horses has
played its part in stables since the
riots of Constantinople over the races
of the blue and the green. No man who
ever lived gave more profound and
searching study to the improvement of
trotters than Robert Bonner. He knew
every artery and every vein, every
nerve and every muscle, every tendon
and every sinew, every joint and every
bone of the trotting horse, as the
greatest of anatomists knows every
cell of the human body. Mr. Bonner
was a marvellous genius On the hand
ling and development of trotters. Dex-
ter was practically broken down when
Mr.. Bonner bought him. His new owner
treated him so effectively that in his
hands Dexter was fieeter and more en-
during than ever before. William H
Vanderbilt sold Maud S. to Mr.. Bonner
when the famous mare seemed to be
in her decline, and not far from break
down. In Mr.. Bonner's stable she re-
gained all that she had lost. Trotters
and PAGERS often need the most skill
full adjustment of the weights on the
shoes or plates, which they wear in
races or trials or on the roads, in or
der that they may show their highest
speed. No one ever surpassed Mr. Bon
ner in his capacity for putting an adj
ditional ounce on one foot and taking
an ounce from another with ca hriI- |