Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1903-05-18
THE CAR SICK HORSE
HOW A RAILROAD JOURNEY AFFECT
ED A HIGH BRED HACKNEY.
Bonfire's Trip TO the Horse show and
Why 1t Ended So DisastrOusIy-Ter-
rifying Ride In n Wheeled Box
After n HothOuse Training.

The story If what happened to a
high bred hackney when lie was sent
by rail to the Madison Square Garden
horse show is told by Sewell Ford in
Horses Nine" Bonfire was the hack
ney's name, but he did not look at all
fiery at the moment. The author says
Of him:
In his stomach was queer feeling
which he did not at all understand. In
his head was dizziness which made
him wish that the stall would not
move about so. Streaks of pain shot
along his backbone and slid down his
legs Hot and cold flashes swept over
his body. for Bonfire had bad case
of car sickness-a malady differing
from seasickness largely in name only
also well developed cold cOmp,i-
Gated by nervous indigestion.
Tuned to the key. he had left the
home stables. Then they had led him
into that box OH wheels, and the tron-
BILE had begun. Men shouted; bells
changed; whistles shrieked. Bonfire
felt the box start with jerk and.
humping. rumbling. jolting. swaying.
move somewhere off into the night.
In an agony Of apprehension-necs
stretched. eyes staring, ears pointed
nostrils quivering, legs stiffened-Bon
fire waited for the end. But Of end
there seemed to be none. Shock after
shock Bonfire withstood and still found
himself waiting. What it all meant he
could not guess. There were the Other
horses that had been taken with him
into the box. some placidly munching
hay, others looking curiously about
There were the familiar grooms who
talked soothingly in his ear and patted
his neck in vain. The terror OF the
thing, this being whirled nOisily away
in a box, had struck deep into Bonfire
brain. and he could not get it out. SC
he stood for many hours. neither eat
ing nor sleeping. listening to the
noises. feeling the motion and trem
bling as one with ague.
OF course it was absurd for Bonfire
| to 20 to pieces in that fashion. You
can ship a Missouri Modoc around The
| WOflu, anu he VIII HliiSh "iiAo9e as
sound as he started. But Bonfire had
blood and breeding and pedigree
which went back to Lady Alice of Burr
Brae Yorkshire.
His coltdom had been a sort of hot
house existence. for Lochlynne, yot
know. is the toy of Pennsylvania Goa
baron who breeds hackneys not fol
profit. but for the JOY there is in 1t
lust as other men grow orchids ant
build cup defenders. At the Lochlynn'
stables they turn on the steam heat II
November On rainy days you are ex
ercised in a glass rooted tan bark ring
and hour after hour you are handled
over deep straw to improve your ac
ton. You breathe outdoor air only il
high fenced grass paddocks. aroun'
which you are driven in surcingle ri
by cockney groom imported with tn
pirskin saddles and British condition
powders From the day your name
written in the studbook until yo
leave YOU have balanced feed. all woo
blankets, fly nettings and coddling tha
never ceases. Yet this is the metho
that rounds you into perfect hackne
form.
All this had been done for Bonfir
and with apparent success. but fe'
hours Of railroad travel had left hir
with set of nerves as tensely strun
as those OF high school girl on graz
uation day That is why draft
cold air had chilled him to the bon
that is why. after reaching the Ga
/ den, he had gone as limp as cut ro
at ball.