Evening star., 1905-11-11
RACE HORSE WHIMS-

"you often hear the remark that race
horses are as capricious as women said
a, trainer who is preparing his string out at
Benning. I'D rather put 1t that they're as
whimsical as children.
Their likes and disiikes are formed ali
of a sudden, like a child's, and as often as
not Thoroughbred horse has the same
sorte of instructive ..eeidance behind his
whimsical notion that the child has For
instance. naturally sneaky. treacherous
man has no more chance to gain the good
will OF highly-bred. high-strung race
horse than he has to gain the confidence
of a child.
There's something in both the horse and
the child that tells them that the bad
hearted man isn't the goods. That some
/ thing. / suppose, Is pure instinct. But
horses of high callber have an even wider
range of whims. That's why every good
race horse has TO be carefully studied by
| his- trainer
| "A dozen years ago trained great race
horse-one OF the greatest of his time
VINO was as calm and self-contained as a
sleeping mastin except for one thing He
coudnt-tnlerate the sight of a man with a
| beard. 1t was pure nervousness, of course,
but YOU cant tell me that that horse didn't
! get that aversion somewhere. We hear
~efiftUfen DeinS marked WIFI SoIle
trait or characteristic from their mothers.
I }-Defft-yot believe that that immortal old
| four-footed boy I'm talking about wasn't
marked in the same way that women are,
| before his birth, with that hatred for a
I bearded man.
II believe just as thoroughly as that I'm
I WEARING hat that his dam had been
| abused by some fellow with a beard and
| that she transmitted her fear of and hatred
| for bearded men to the son who made her
name glorious. 1t may not be scientific
Land all that, hut know a lot of plain old
| facts about horses and things that are not
INCLUDED in-any system of science. Most
| race horses are devoted to women Yet
I've trained ed-zthoroughbreds that had such
an innate dislike for women that 1t was
| dangerous for a woman to get anywhere
| near them. I've got a good horse in my
string now that's dead mashed on the young
| wife of the owner for whom L train, eX-
cept when she approaches him with the
| frou-frou Of a silk skirt. Then he won't
| tolerate her around him at all.
The hiss and swish of the silk skirt
startles HIM and finally drives him into a
| sort of frenzy of nervousness or resentment
| or whatever you please to cali it. When
| she isn't wearing any rustling silk skirt to
! bother him, though, he is as gentle with her
| as a Newfoundland dog is with a baby, and
bends his head forward to her to have her
| rub his ears and muzzles her face and hair
with the affection of child.
'ThoroughbredS. show their individuality
| by their conduct just before they're due to
| race. .saAH race horses of experience know
| the days VIXEN they're slated to race, not
| only because OF the scant feeding they get
on the mornings of those days, but-Well,
| simply because they know, that's all.
I've got now a swell horse who has a
way OF behaving before a race that's a new
one on me. although they tell me that a
| lot of English race horses act his way. On
the morning OF his race day he becomes as
| solemn as an owl, and STANDS perfectly
| rigid with scarcely a blink, for nearly all
of the forenoon hours, apparently in state
of deep meditation on what's about TO
come off.
His barrel breaks ont in "a sort of cold
sweat and yet he is so deadly solemn over
| it that you could almost wave a burning
newspaper before his eyes without making
him turn hair. And yet on other days,
he's an agreeable, normal sort of a horse,
and as playful as a kitten.
II was alarmed over him when 1 first
got him when he got into. that rigid, i'm
movable state on the morning of his first
race under my care. Fearing something
allied him. l was going to scratch him. But
his owner wanted him left in and sent
him along, and he walked up TO the barrier,
still as stiff a ramrod. with as nXed a
stare In his eye as If he'd been poisoned.
But when the flag dropped and the netting
flew up he was off like typhoon, and he
came home in bulldog style, with every
thing dizzy behind him. On all Of his race
days since then he's got himself into the
same solemn and rigid state during the
forenoon but there hasn't been anything
stiff about him after the drop of the flag.
"Other horses become painfully nervous
on their race days, trampling around In
their boxes like Gagged lions, and shaking
their heads and rolling their eyes and kick
Ing UP a bobbery in general that takes a
good deal out of them when 1t comes to
racing. And then there are horses who, on
their race mornings. go right on about their
complaisant business, not bothering at all,
but who when you visit their stalls to take
your last look a them before the saddling
hour. lust rest their muzzles in your shirt
front and look you in the eye as much as
to say:
old pal. I'm a-going to do the best l
can, that's all
''And that's the kind of a horse that L
lke-that is to say, supposing that it's pos
sible for me to like anyone kind of horse
any better than l do all of them: