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TRAINING ON WHEELS WHEELSHistory History repeats itself in many ways and so many things happen between times that the repetitions are hailed as novelties and a public satiated with scare heads and more or less impossible pictures falls over itself to grasp the novelty Save the mark I IWe We have been inundated with American train ¬ ing methods in England and other countries Ithough little has been done there which is not done every day at Tiome and as a matter of fact the yearly occurrences round the average training stable would give any amount of vitally interesting copy to any one who was sufficiently technically interested to grasp it itColumns Columns have been written on the fact that Allan aDale the magnificent Halma Sudie McNairy colt which is favorite for the American and Ken ¬ tucky Derbies was speeded to a sulky covering the mile in about 1 55 This of course was not typical trotting It was however nearly eight seconds faster than the time of Cresceus the worlds cham ¬ pion trotter last summer but it is nothing new in American training records Last year The Black Scot ran many times but to no good effect until ho was driven to the track in a buggy when he won at good odds Since then old Dorian who was raced until six years old and then retired to harness has been returned to the turf at eleven years and won a couple of weeks since in California for Green B Morris who vows he shall never look through a harness bridle again About ten years ago Harry Alonzo was entered in a race at Sheepshead Bay while stabled at Brighton Beach He was hitched to a road wagon and with three men in it was driven at top speed to Coney Island where he was at once taken on the track without any warming up ran won and established a new track record for the race raceAway Away back in the paet Aratoma was trained to a buggy and accomplished great deeds and anothet buggy horse was La Polka Mr Sauford is said to have trained several horses to buggies as part of their exercise and achieved good results The most remarkable piece of training was probably the gelding Nicholas I owned by Mr John Hunter This was a horse of the four mile heat days when there were giants in the land The training this horse received was mainly swimming in the canal Every day he was taken down to the water and had a great time strik ¬ ing out with his legs developing the won ¬ derful leg power which carried him so well over a distance and set several new notches on the scroll bf Fame Of course he had plenty of running and walking exercise as well but the main develop1 ment aimed at was from the swimming Captain OShanghnessy with his horse Qlendove for the Lincolnshire Handicap of 1874 trained him on stale bread beer and molasses taking his temperature every night at 9 p m and holding his head out over the half door of his stall for so long according to the period required in his opinion to re duce the pulse to normal He also applied wet bandages to the top of the thigh instead of round the pastern claiming that it thus drew the inflammation into the body and so passed it off Qlendove ran a bad last in the race won by Tomahawk with Fred Archer up on his first win nipg mount of any importance but OShaughnessy was very serious as to the efficacy of his training which he ran into the ground as there aupears to bo some danger of doing with this buggy and sulky question just about now nowTrainer Trainer McDowell who drove AllanaDale said the exercise was given to keep the weight oil the animals back and develope the leg muscles A competent authority while calling on The Spirit said This is all very well so far as it goes but there must be great care taken or in the opinion of those well qualified to judge there will bo un fortunate results The act of drawing a sulky will certainly develope the legs but it is not along the lines of muscular action which a horse will exercise and strain when running With the sulky it is a constant strain to move quickly a weight which is balanced behind the animal while when the boy is in the saddle the weight is right over the withers or pretty nearly so Thus there is a total change of the center of gravity With the sulky there is considerable danger unless great cfire is taken of developing the horse unevenly as a gymnast is frequently found to be He may bo a wonder on the horizonal bar but when he comes to the parallels he is lost The superfluous amount of exercise taken on the bar has unduly developed certain muscles and by a law of compensation the other muscles have suffered to a certain extent Thus a horse thor ¬ oughly trained to a sulky will have the back mus ¬ cles moro or lets weak and when the test comes of that last half furlong in a bruising finish the back muscles will bo in danger of weakeningbeforo thoir time simply because the leg muscles have been un ¬ duly developed at their expense This is not a theory Not an idle dream It is the verdict of ex ¬ perienced men who are afraid that the present fad of sulky exercising may be run into the ground and that the curious folly of taking a steeplechaser and entering him in the hur ¬ dles right away with the expectation of winning Hjrith him may be repeated along other lines The sulky however will not affect every horse alike There are some types of horses which need just that onesided development and which never run to their best limit without the weight being sufficient of a tax upon them to prove a steadier Today is the age of progress variously understood and as we have had the stationary home trainer for the bicyclist producing good effects we may yet have the home trainer buggy apparatus fitted with the treadmill appliance of endless stairs so familiar to horse power utilizers in the rural districts Time will show Spirit of the Times
