The Washington herald., 1913-01-19

bring them to the post sound and
fit is now the problem that con-
fronts the owner of every young
Ster.
No man who is not the personihcation
of patience has any business with the
DEVELOPMENT of a colt. No one Is en-
pIoyed in well-regulated horse-breeolns
establishments nowadays who does not
possess patience and who cannot controi
his temper The whip has been BAN
ished to a large degree from all horse
breeding establishments The trotting-
bred colt of to-day is not the cold-blooded
brute he was thirty five and forty years
ago. He is better bred and he is more
highly organized. like his thoroughbred
brother. In-breeding, to nit the instinct
TO trot, has produced this result. The
best results are achieved under present
conditions when the colt is halter-broken
as a sucking and harnessed and driven
a little each day after he is well weaned.
The demand for early speed. because
of the rich futurity stakes offered, is
liable to bring about many physical
wrecks, but the demand for colt trotters
is so insistent and the prices so high
that colt owners are justified in taking
big chances A man who only owns one
or two trotting-bred foals is hardly Justi-
fled in taking as many chances Of doing
injury to his colts as is the man VINO
owns a big horse-breeding farm The
practice of racing yearlings has long
been discontinued in this country. Every
season, however, yearlings are prepared
to race against the watch with remark
albe results. Views of experienced men
bpur colt should he developed
vary.
Some claim that the colt should be
taught to go miles from the outset,
stepping him along parts Of each mile.
Others believe in the brush system;
that is, stepping him eighths first until
his speed is well developed. then quar-
ters and, finally, miles. The last-named |
is the Stanford system of colt develop |
ment and the records show that the late |
master of the Lone Pine Ranch had rea- |
soned out the problem of colt develop |
ment with the acumen that distinguished /
him in all his vast enterprises. The late |
distinguished Senator from California |
whom we well knew and with whom We
often conversed during the years of his
triumphs as a breeder and developer of
colts (some of which were champions), |
held tc the theory that a colt develops
speed more rapidly by brushing him short
distances at the outset of his racing /
career than IL he was dogged miles until |
he was weary in spirit and body.
He further held that colt which can
not trot fast eighth or a fast quarter
will never be able TO trot fast mile.
Now. that is known in mathematics, and,
in fact, if We reflect for a moment. a
sci IL
strange that IT fell to the lot of a man
whose life had hitherto been given to
solving commercial propositions OF a
colossal nature, and who did not begin
to breed trotters until well advanced in
years, to have evolved SO simple a theory.
From the days of Hiram Woodruff and
Dan Mace to those of Charles Marvin the
brush system of colt development, if
once thought of, had never been applied. !
Even Marvin had to be converted to II
by his employer-Leland Stanford-and he
confesses in his interesting book that it
was only because he thought better of
his salary than of his personal opinion
on the subject that he consented to adopt
IL. Senator Stanford, by the way, was a
man, very deliberate and
however, and, as Mrs. STAN
ford once remarked to us with a smile,
q BIT stubborn.
Another theory evolved by Stanford
was htat boisterous voices, such as loud
talking and yelling, about their stalls
made them nervous and afraid Of the ap-
proach of man
More colts, he claimed, were over
worked than underworked, and when a
colt no longer seemed to take an interest
IN his work he should be turned out to