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, , . j 11 ? - fe - t I" n e :t - 11 ;s 5- a a h e i- 1- . x VARYING DISPOSITIONS OF HORSES. Good and Bad Tempered Ones the Outcome of Kind or Harsh Treatment. C In the course of a conversation at Lexington a few days ago John B. Payne asked Major Foxhal A. Daiugerlield if Peter Pan was a horse of good disposition, whereupon the latter said: "He Is a horse of good temper and a willing disposition, as all horses should be and the majority would he with proper treatment. Gentleness and kindness are the first essentials in the care of a horse. A soft-voiced, considerate groom in a stable is worth much more than he is usually paid. The man who is given to speaking harshly to horses or striking or clubbing them finds no quarter at by Castleton Stud. I would not have a man of that kind on the place services free. While I was r, living in Virginia, and before 1 was Identified with r Mr. Kcene in his breeding enterprise, he bought , Blue Gown and several mares in England. The 0 vessel on which they were coming to this country was disabled and was adrift for twenty days. Dur- ing that period be lost Blue Gown and some of the mares. Those saved were sent on from New York and placed at the William Kinney farm, near this city, and Mr. ICeene bought Blue Mantle to t mate with them. The horse came over in charge of two English grooms, and had the reputation of j being a savaye. It was claimed that lie had killed three men. Those grooms never went about him . singly. One would go into the stall first with a j club and stand menacingly near the horse, holding the club ready to strike him, and, I am told, j often did strike him, while the other went about the process of grooming. "One day a stupid darky appeared at the farm with a request for work. The man in charge put him to watering the horses. He went from stall to stall, -taking each horse by the halter and lead- ing him to the trough. No one had thought to tell him that Blue Mantle was a savage. The negro entered Blue Mantles stall, untied him arid led him out to the water. One of the English grooms, seeing him coming out of the stall, ran shouting for 1 help. But the stallion followed the negro up to the trough, drank until his thirst was quenched, looked about him complacently as the negro stroked : his inane and asked him gently if he wanted more. After a reasonable pause he led the horse back to 1 his stall, tied him at his rack and patted him on the side a moment before he went on to the next stall. The surprise of those Englishmen was great, and they told the man in charge of the remarkable happening. The- man was wise enough to send ; the Englishmen back home, and he put the stupid, soft-voiced negro in charge of Blue Mantle. From that day on there was never any need for a club. Blue Mantle had been vicious only because his keepers had fought him. It is the nature of any man to give combat when he is assailed and so it is with the horse. The horse, like the man, is likewise amenable to good treatment. "I remember that a man named Creibel, who was a liveryman, at Ilarrisburg, Va., bought a son of Eolus, with which he expected to win some races at the fairs. He used to ride him at exercise himself, and I noticed two or three mornings in succession that the horse came in much excited, bleed- ing at the mouth, and his breast covered with bloody foam. Creibel said that the horse was a savage and uncontrollable. I told him that I thought the chief trouble was a tender mouth and rough treatment. I advised him to use a smooth hit instead of the one of twisted wire, and to let a negro boy who worked around the stable ride him. He did so, and within six weeks there was not a more gentle horse in Ilarrisburg. The liveryman sold him to a neighbor of mine, who used him as a hunter and also drove him to a buggy." The conversation now turned to the care of stal- lions, and Harry Stanhope, the man who bred Rhoda B., the dam of Orby and Rhodora, thecolt and filly with which Richard Croker this year won the English Derby and the Dewhurst Plate, re- spectively, remarked that Major Daingerfield is not a believer in high fences as inclosures for stallion paddocks. "That I am not," said the Major. "The horse in his native state is a gregarious animal, and to shut him out of all sight of his kind can serve no good purpose. At Castleton Stud the stallion paddocks are inclosed with double fences, seven feet high, and with three rails and a runner on top. This latter serves as a prbtection to the horse should he rear up and get his feet over the fence. With the double fences they set about four feet apart he cannot get to horses in the next field. We keep the mares in three fields, and they are so arranged that some of the mares are always in sight of the stallions. This does not, as I have heard some people declare, excite the stallions. It has, on the contrary, been my experience that the stallions are more quiet. When Kingston was at La Belle Stud he was kept in a paddock, sur-e rounded by a fence over which he could not see, and when he became the property of Mr. Keene, Eugene Leigh told me that he had never been able to keep him in the paddock such as we have at Cas-a tleton. I thought I would try him in one of them, anyhow. I turned him out where he could see other horses, and there he is yet, as quiet as any horse on the place. We have never had the least bit of trouble with him."
