Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1909-10-22
SENSITIVE ANIMALS.

meeting, was taking OF the SulhiiiS
~propensities of a certain clever race
horse nov running on the metropolitan
tracks.
IF the people behind that horse
| could only find out what trifling little
thing he is sulking about" said the
trainer, lit would be worth tens OF
thousands of dollars to them. They
could easily remedy whatever little
matter it might be that Is causing the
horse to carry such a vast amount OF
p~outishness about in his midriff, n
then, with his wrong redressed. he'd
go right ahead and win good races un-
til the end of the season.
You often hear the remark that
thoroughbred horses are as capricious
as women. I'd rather put 1t that
they're as whimsical as children.
Their likes and dislikes are formed
all OF a sudden. like a child's. n as
often as not a thoroughbred horse has
the same sort of distinctive guidance
behind his whimsical notion that a
child has. For example, a naturally
sneaky, treacherous nan has no more
chance to gain the good will of a highly
bred race horse h a he has to gain the
confidence of a child.
There is something in both the horse
and the child that tells them that the
bad hearted man isn't right. That
4 Will II ~ AeNS
But horses of high caliber have an
even wider range of whims. That's
why every good trainer studies the
kinks of every one of the horses in his
charge.
About ten years ago / trained a
great race horse-one of the greatest
| of his time-who vas as calm and self
contained as a priest, except for one
thing. He couldn't tolerate the sight
of q man with q beard.
1T was pure nervousness, of course,
but you can't tell me that that horse
didn't get that aversion somewhere.
We hear about children being marked
with some trait or characteristic by
their mothers. Don't you believe that
hat immortal old four footed boy I'm
talking about wasn't marked Just in
the way that children are, before his
birth, with that hatred for a bearded
man. l believe just is thoroughly as
] believe that I'm wearing a hat that
that horses 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 as a stud matron.
1t may not be scientific and all that,
but / know q lot Of plain old facts
about horses and other things that are
not embraced in any system of science.
Most race horses are devoted to
women. Yet I've trained thorough
breds that had such an inmate dis
like for women that it was dangerous
for a woman to get anywhere near
them.
"Tve got a swell horse in my string
now who is dead gone on the young
wife of one of the owners for whom
/ train, except when she approaches
him with the 'frou-frou of a silken
skirt. Then he won't tolerate her
around him at all.
"The hiss and the swish of the silken
skirt startles him and finally drives
him into a sort Of frenzy Of vou
ness or resentment or whatever you
want to call 1t. When she isn't wear
ing any rustling silken skirt to bother
him, however, ir is ar gentle with ner
as a Newfoundland dog with d baby,
and bends his ears forward to her to
have her rub them and muzzles her
face and fair with the affection of a
child.
Early environment has pretty near
as much to do with the formation OF
a horses character as of a child's.
Southern bred horses, for instance, are
devoted to their black care-takers, and
when such horses are switched TO own
ers whose stable employees are all white
men the horses suffer severely from
lonesomeness for the negroes for a long
time, n they never become entirely
used to the white stable hands. On
the other hand, race horses bred up
north, in New York or Pennsylvania or
New Jersey, say, n reared under the
guardianship of white men. have an in
tense aversion for the black man.
II recall the case of a fine handicap
horse which had a sensational record
as a two-year-old and a three-year-
! old on the southern tracks before he
changed hands and was brought to New
York tracks 90 show his mettie. His
new owner had tremendous expecta-
tons OF that colt, but the horse raced
at least thirty pounds below his true
form from the outset.
From a manager glutton he became
a poor feeder as soon as he was brought
east, and only munched enough oats
to keep himself from starvation. Two
! or three experf v~aterinaris.s Examined
the colt and found nothing that matter
with him, n yet he continued to NOPE
and to lose flesh and to go about his
work in a hopeless, lack adaisical way
which made 1t gu of the question TO
get him to any sort of a racing edge
worthy his known grand capabilities,
His people couldn't make 1t out.
zone day a egr stable hand from
another barn wandered into that COLTS
stall. AS soon as the colt saw and
smelt the black hand. he almost ate
him up alive with pure, unrestrained
JOY. He licked the black mans hands
and muzZled his shirt and whfnnied
and paved the dirt and danced around
like a crs> horse. The trainer of the
colt happened to be standing by at the
time.
81 know what ails that colt he said
the light breaking on him. He was
born and brought up with the coons,
| and he's lonesome for EN-
THE trainer promptly engaged three
black stable hands to devote their ex-
| elusive attention to hat horse. He be-
| gan to gorge his oats as soon as he
made up his mind that the darkies were
around him TO stay, picked up meat and
muscle, went at his work like an un-
leashed hound. and the nayt time be
| went To the races he bowled over his
field as IL they were dachshunds.n