The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-12-04
BALANCING OF FAST HonsEs.
Attention Must Be paid Shoeing and
 Biting of Trotter and Pacer.

Attention Must Be paid Shoeing and
 Biting of Trotter and Paeer.
 When the crowd sees a trotter or
 pacer do a mile in 2:10, the nag's gait must be about right, but while most Ipeople are aware of this fact good
 many do not know that every trotter or pacer must be "balaneedp before lit can show anything like it's real
 speed Balance" in connection with harness horses means shoeing, boot ling, biting and checking in such fash
 ion that when full speed is wanted
 the horse not only will be able to step
 up to that clip and maintain it in a Itrue-going manner but that. at, the same time, the driver is enabled, by
 reason of the horse being in balance, to get along with practically no pull
 on the lines In the days of Hiram Woodruff, says Henry Ten Eyck White, any trotter that did not take hold in other words, lag on the bit was esteemed of litle value as a racing tool, and in the light of mod ern developments in the art of balanc- ing 1t is easy to see that the dictum
 which to many now looks absurd, was based on solid fact. At that time absolutely nothing was known about balancing trotters by means of toe weights, for instance, nor was such thing as a boot in existence, although in proportion to the total number trained there were as many horses then as now that went inside with one foot, carried their heads to
 one side, hogged on the bit, drove on one line, brushed their Knees, and went up to their elbows.
 With the single exception of the overhead check not one of the dozens of devices now necessities in train ing stable was in existence. This meant that trotters had to be bal aneed on the bit, and to-day if the best trainer on earth takes horse of |2:20 speed and starts to train him without a boot, to weight, or modern bit or check he will be balancing that nag on the bit inside of 30 days, and
 in order to keep the thing on trot at top speed will have to take a hold on the lines that would put any trotter of 2:20 speed back about 10 seconds to the mile. Shoeing also, as now practlced, would have improved the records of some of the old-time cham pions from three to five seconds Does anybody know what weight shoe Goldsmith Maid, which set the trot- ting record at 2:14 in the early 70s,
 wore on her front feet? Nobody does, for the simple reason that in those days 1t never occurred to trainers that the weight or pattern of the for ward shoes made any difference in the speed of trotter Goldsmith Maid
 was "handy"-that is, she could make Fbreaks when going at full speed and lose little or nothing by the operation. No attention was paid to the shoes other than to see they were good, substantial ones and fitted her feet. No one ever thought to see what they weighed, but long years after the mare had retired Dotle got to think ing of the Maid and her shoes. He had no samples of what she had worn
 in front, but one of her hind shoes re- mained, and on having 1t weighed he found it balanced the scales at ex- Iactly one pound. Tn the present day Ia 2:14 trotter of her size would be more apt to carry six ounces or less behind than l6.