The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-01-09

each OF her parents, tnuS DecomiuS
Lou Dillon. If she had been of the
other sex she would probably have
been christened Sidney Milton.
LOUIS father is compactly built
chestnut stallion, IS hands inches
in height, and weighing in his prime
I,I25 pounds. He has remarkably
good trotting action, and has gone a
mile in 2.I6 over the farm track at
Santa Rosa, though he never was Civ
en- a record.
Lou Milton, who is still on the
Santa Rosa Stock Farm, is now turn
ed twenty years of age. She was, at
the time when her great daughter
came into the world, very good
looking bay mare of aristocratic ap-
pearance. She was fine, clean cut,
high strung, and had about her all
the indications of a thoroughbred.
! Her father was Milton Medium, soffs
of Happy Medium, who belonged to
one of the very best equine families,
and whose memory is still green in
the far West.
There is bit of mystery con-
cerning some part of Lou Dillon's
fairly tree, and since her sudden and
tremendous rise in the world equine
geneaologists have been very busy in
vestigating it. So learned are they
and SO thorough and painstaking have
been their researches that there is no
doubt but that, in spite of the fact
that California records of twenty
years ago were painfully negiectful in
regard to horse genealogies, Louis
ancestry will be traced.
On this Santa Rosa farm, then,
amid the groves and fields, all in the
balmy cline of California, Lou Dillon
was born OF aristocratic parents five
years ago, and here it was that she
grew up a gay young aristocrat, re-
yelling in all the delights of the place.
As she matured it was easily perceiv-
ed that she had great speed possibili-
ties, but at the same time sober sided
people shook their heads over her.
She was so high strung that they
thought she was overstrung, too ner-
vous, too notional, too frivolous, too
wayward to ever amount to any
thing.
When harness was first put upon
her she showed nervousness and i'm
patience, and she wanted her own
way. The farm trainer, very ex-
perienced man, but a stick1er for or
thodoxy, insisted on her doing things
as other horses did them. Mildly
but firmly she refused, and when he
still persisted, they quarrelled. Lou
has very sweet disposition she
never harbors vicious thought, she
is generous and gentle, yet most
brave and full of fire, and SO it is pos
sible to force quarrel with her.
So whenever she was taken out by
the farm trainer there were painful
scenes of discord, and the sober sided
people shook their heads more and
more.
Three years ago, when I returned
to the Santa Rosa farm for the winter
season, l found Lou in disgrace on
account of what was supposed to be
ipvincible frivolity. I made her ac-
quaintance and liked her at once.
She has the daintiest and incest man
ners of any horse l ever saw. She
took to me, too, and from that day to
this, though l have driven her in all
her miles, we have never had quar-
rel.
She needed understanding, trust
and sympathy, for, as I have said,
she is very feminine. There never
was safer horse, but she is most am
bilious, wanting to go all the time.
AS acquaintance with Lou ripened I
became more and more convinced that
she was worthy of the Higher Edu-
cation, and SO the following season I
brought her with my stable on the
grand circuit, which includes the
tracks at Cleveland, Detroit, Buffalo,
Boston, New York, Lexington, Gin
cinnati, etc. This is an opportunity
that very few young horses get, and
it is most improving, After time
a horse becomes tired of racing on the
same track against the same competi-
tors. 1t feels the monontony just as
man would. l am sure that wild
animals that are Gagged suffer from
this purely mental effect in the same
way, and that the reason SO many of
them sicken and die is that all inter-
est and excitement have been taken
out of their lives. They have moth
ing to look at and nothing to do, and
they are simply bored to death.
On the grand circuit there is con-
slant change and excitement, and Lou
Dillon tried all sorts of tracks and
had brushes with all sorts of rivals,
and all the time she was gaining in
experience and confidence. She had
all the benefits of racing and none of
the strain. On the Cleveland track
we trotted her in brief brushes against
Amelia, who has done mile in
2.o6M Dolly Dillon, 2.o7, and Sir
Albert S., 2.o3A. The opinion that
she had great speed was confirmed,
and her education was continued with
increasing hope. Last year at Mem
phis l allowed her to go mile IN
2.o8H, the last half being covered in
I.o1A which was remarkable work
for four year old. That ended the
season, and I shipped Lou back to
California with the rect of fhe stable
During last winter one of the own
ers of the Santa Rosa farm, Mr.. Henry
Pierce, died, and Lou Dillon had to
be sold in order to settle the estate.
On May 18th of last year she was
shipped to Cleveland and sold to Mr..
Billings for $I2, ,5oo-a regular gift.
Early in the season she began to do
remarkably we'll and, constantly i'm
| proving. SURPRISED us on every occa-