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IN THE MAKING OF A RACE HORSE HORSECeaseless Ceaseless Toil and Vicilanco Required iti Condition ¬ ing the Thoroughbred Every day has ils individual excitement for tlic racing stable ils item of vital importance to the compact world of the turf Every day one or more important and valuable stakes are decided and lue stable Las a representative nominated in most of them The less important races take care of them ¬ selves along lower and Jess oxcitinsr lines Thus with each day comes its one potent event eventAt At four oclock in the early morning the stable day may be said to dawn The night watchman xivos the horses their lirst feed according to direc ¬ tions from the trainer overnight iiree quarts of oats eacli to all animals not due for hard work that morning the horses to be tried out only re ¬ ceiving a bare one mart of oats so that the stom ¬ ach satiatedThis may be refreshed but not satiated This food is placed in a feedbox which fits into the manger or stands by itself as desired permit ¬ ting removal for inspection after the meal as well aS for scrupulous cleansing and airing No dish or plate in the human bouse is given more attention if so much At halfpast four the cook and the employes arc called and they come tumbling out of the quarters like so many bears from a den and without an order start their individual tasks There are no dullards round a racing stable where life is the Jife of an athlete in perfect trim Some go to the harness room for brushes cloths etc others for water etc gathering the items needed during the mornings work Each individual knows his task and sets about it without delay Saddles bridles and all straps are duly inspected for weak Kltots and for cleanliness and suppleness girths are looked at to insure their laying Hat and com ¬ fortable for a horse must be comfortable in his trim as a man in his clothes and shoes if great work is to be accomplished At a call the help files off to breakfast as the horses are finishing theirs theirsThe The eating room is a partition from the kitchen and in most stables there are two tables one for Ihe white help and one for the colored this being the only color line drawn in the stable democ ¬ racy If the owner or friends come to breakfast as is frequently the case they sit at the white table and enjoy a typically ood meal with many novelties costing from a maximum of six dollars and fifty cents per head per week to not less than three dollars The fowl and the cooking is dis ¬ tinctly good Open air and plenty of rugged sys ¬ tematic exercise good hours sound sleep and diges ¬ tion linked to a practical absence of bad habits and vices make stupendous amounts of food literally melt away awayAt At live oclock or even a trifle earlier breakfast is supposed to be over Either the trainer arrived for breakfast or he is now on the scene and his first proceeding is to walk slowly with observant eyes past every stall door in front of which is its individual feed bor tilted on edge that at a glance lie may see if Hie horse lias cleaned it hungrily or desultorily or if off his feed and needs at ¬ tention without delay This may be termed taking the pulse of his charges and is a most important item The horse that eats well and looks well as ii rule works well and will stand much more racing lhau the light finicky feeder The great Sysouby had an appetite like a school lad and so soon as Jie aiwoke simply shouted for his feed Marcs are usually less eager than horses at their box and one I have known within a comparatively short time Had to be fed almost oat by oat from her trainers hand for several days before the race Otherwise she could not be coaxed to cat Medical attention would have thrown her off form As a rule being off feed means first aid remedies lighter exercise for a day or two and close attention if the indis ¬ position does not prove transient in which case expert veterinary aid is at once obtained Happy the trainer whose feed boxes are emptied and pol ished each day lie knows it is the battle half von By this time the first set of horses generally fur have l eon saddled bridled and with exercise bovs in the saddle led from the stable to the ad ¬ jacent track safely placed within its confining railed course before their heads are thrown loose to the exercising bridle A runaway round stables is much more liable to injure itself than a runaway m the course proper hence this care Itefore ten minutes elapse the set is at work the actual hour varies with the light which must be rood In lay it is about 015 in August round 5 oclock The horses make the circuit of the track at a liarp trot with the boys carefully holding them together a light firm tension on the bit which makes the animal keep his legs under him in rfect poise to the balancing center beam of the human body in the saddle There is no easy chair touching seat permitted on a race horse which must be nnintermittently reminded that race life is real and earnest There is no larking on the track The trot extends to a mile or a mile and a half according to the elliptic of the individual course Just sufficient to set the blood circulating to sweep away the brain cobwebs and ty loosen any Blight stiffness from a constrained position in sleep iiig etc just as a human being disperses similar muscular kinks by stretching stretchingThe The trainer is somewhere near the judges stand or seated in the grandstand near that point watch ¬ ing every move of his charges how they handle themselves the vim or the lack of it As they pass him at the completion of the round he sends them off at a slow welliiihand canter which eventually breaks into a run through the stretch where the trainer stands now on tue track The iiorces are lined in a row facing him and as saddles and 1 ies are taken off he gives each niiimal close examination noting the heave of the Hanks the evidences of distress the obvious desire for more the way each has been affected by the warmingup exercises Especially docs he note the condition of the horse which has been off its feed or one which is rounding to or approach jug topnotch condition for a race raceThe The horses are now well nibbed down Their eyes nostrils and mouths sponged out with a profuse Mipply of water and scrupulously clean aud sweet rpoujjcs Their feet are inspected for cakes of dirt etc aud within ten minutes the saddles are re ¬ placed the more experienced boys placed upon the Jiorscs mnft advanced toward condition the stables jockeys are probably placed on the cracks and they Htart in pairs each under special directions from tli trainer as to distance to be covered and speed the various furlong divisions are to be run runThis This means that the individual horses jog to a certain point are then taken along at a specified tatc of speed and at another specified place are urged to nearly top speed or to actual top speed is directed and brought back to the trainer who is standing watch in hand For instance he will say Rob take the colt to the threequarter post break him anit take him four furlongs in about sixteen I lien breeze him home through the stretch This n ms the boy is to go jogging to the post making fix furlongs from the judges stand start as if in H race cover the four furlongs approximately in r litt en seconds for the first sixteen for the sec ¬ ond fifteen for the third fourteen for the fourth smut fifth and the final furlong according to the rapacity and condition of the horse The boy will never force the horse If he labors or falters un ¬ less under specific directions the breeze will be a verv mild one The above is a highclass work workTin Tin lrf y must be a good judge of pace to do this Sloan at his best was a marvel lie could take i horse any given distance at any given speed carcily varying the onefifth fraction of a second t only is this faculty very important in training lint it is of inestimable value in a race insuring oven exertion at a high rate of speed with tlte final spurt always in reserve Without such knowl ¬ edge of pace a boy told by his trainer to wait until lie reached the stretch might find a much slower pace than the trainer had expected when tJj directions are given A good rider would then go out and make his own pace strictly within the limits of his mount letting others pass him if they oared to do so but holding the even tenor of way sit which his mount would do his best work and Sill have tiie linal spurt in reserve when called for It is by the obvious lack of expert knowledge in this detail and the equally obvious lack of practical execution by our modern riders as dis I inguislied from jockeys that numberless races which should be won are thrown away Tills fre iiuiitly causes the reversals of form we hear m much about and which so many racegoers do not appear to understand understandDuring During this period of work the Tigilance of the trainer Is unceasing Having given the necessary rdors watch in hand he stands seeing they are xe utod to the vorv letter as be desires He notes fjow ach horse breaks how it moves how it re ¬ sponds under the continuous calls for increased We and what the condition when brought back to him He notes how the individual rider has Jiaudled liis mount AVith what time and other ac ¬ curacy he lias carried out Instructions That there rias been no larking no racing one horse against the other for after all exercise boys are only children and will lapse unless under strong and 0111 ant supervision fhummincss between a fast horse and u slower horse must be avoided other ¬ wise iu a race tiie fast horse is liable to wait for Jils slower mate as in practice spins Horses in dined to run out or go wide on the turns thus losing valuable ground in a race have an oilier liorse placed on the outside to keep them in on the riii and a scon of other things which must nil be watched and looked after The small things roiiiit in racing as in life lifeThe The trainer must know and note which horse runs Iris best especially winre twoy oarolds are making iheif first start or are just developing into real use ¬ fulness and value Those passing the cauine Riibi n into the threeyearold division must be watched see if the twoyearold measure of excellence is sustained diminished or improved when the corre ¬ sponding change from youth to nmiihood takes place In their performances A good twoyearold may not live up to form as a threevearold or he may mirpnfs it All of which the trainer learns by close and ciMSfless observation in these early morning at the race track How frequently iio we find a liorso coming out winning at long odds running a brilliant race with the trainer absolutely astounded at the suddenly displayed quality in an animal which has been tinder his hands for months past The pastThe work over the horses trot to the stable sad ¬ dles are removed and the animals actually sham ¬ pooed They are wetted and then covered with a soap solution well rubbed in the way of the hair then sltiiycd off scraped with a curious bent piece of wood and hand rubbed until their coats are dry shining aud gleaming iu the sunlight the blood dancing close to the surface making each animal glad to be alive Then in most cases the horse goes to the sand oath which is the ioy of his existence Here he rolls wriggles hunches along squirming the sand under every hair on back sides and legs finally getting up to look like a miller Tle sand Is lightly brushed off and each animal covered with a light sheet known as a lindsey to be led around at a walk until thoroughly cool generally in about an hour but walked until cool u longWhen matter how long When absolutely cool the horses are taken to their individual stalls or boxes where they fiud a clean cool jiew bed awaiting them aud after their coats have l eeii again well smoothed down they are left to rest as they please Meanwhile the second and other sets have been to the track put through a similar curriculum and returned to their stalls Finally the trainer comes alo makes necessary observations gives final morning orders and goes home to a second breakfast or to rest restThe The stable hands are busy cleaning and cooling saddles girths bridles bits and airing blankets for nothing may be dirty or scamped in a training stable and the assistant foreman or trainer moves from place to place with an eye to everything As a rule here is where quaint songs and choruses are softly chanted generally of local composition the idea being to ease and facilitate the work to get it over and also to soothe the tired horses to rest which certainly seems to be the case Some stand half somnolently at the half door others doze head to the wall others lie down downEarly Early in the afternoon all work is ended and the half doors are quietly closed There is no unneces sarv noise around a stable the horses have a chance to sleep and these are the hours when not even for the owner will a trainer permit his charges to be disturlxid Regularity of food water exercise and rest are the prime essentials of success About five oclock the half doors are again opened in some stables the horses get walking exercise for half an hour in others this is not done The evening feed is given the boxes again inspected the stalls cleaned out beds changed medicated sawdust smelling of pine buds thrown in legs and feet closely examined for swelling or the lightest heat The hoofs are packed with peat moss or with Potomac clay steeped for hours molded into the foot and tied in with a cloth keeping the foot moist and cool and this ends the day The varia ¬ tion in different stables is very slight slightA A completed whole tells very little of the intrica ¬ cies of production One sees a soulstirring contest between imperial thoroughbreds1 a grand spectacle but as to the mechanism producing it very littie is known by the layman laymanAfter After carefully selecting Us horses when young or when advanced performers the trainers work and trouble are only foreshadowed Starting in Febru ¬ ary according to weather and location of stable around New York or iu the South it takes three months careful development to bring a horse into condition his individual flesh at the start deter ¬ mining the time Not alouo the flesh on his bones but the fat around the intestines which cannot be hurried away Having achieved condition the object is to keep this equine athlete on edge so long as possible just so much exercise that he does not weaken or go stale and this is the nerveracking phase of the training life A horse is headed for a race two months away the horse comes to hand earlier than anticipated just as a human athlete will and for one or two weeks it is the toss of a coin dependent on a chill indigestion fright acci ¬ dent ovcrexcrtion a sudden change in weather or one of the thousand aud one things which govern life equine or human When in condition some horses can run a couple of races a week others only one in about three weeks Fillies are pro ¬ verbially difficult to handle in training whimsical as women with as many moods and as inexplicable as those of an operatic diva She must be hu ¬ mored petted worked less than a colt rested more not annoyed or teased and not raced too frequently Some horses race themselves into condition others need only jogging and light exercise between races and others need to be driven out with whip and a stout competitor to keep them on edge Desert Chief the steeplechaser raced best when worked on the flat never seeiug a fence except when rac ¬ ing ingThe The nightmare of the trainer is the horse which will not sleep So long as his charges eat and sleep they may be handled If one will not eat it is bad but the nonsleeper turns a trainers hair prematurely gray They move restlessly round and round the stall all night until perfectly exhausted and then cannot work well The other horses are disturbed and they state the fact in no uncertain tones Then the walker stops a while but soon commences again and the stable Is upset Bricks are hung from the ceiling to bump his head a dog cat or goat or even a rubber fond of the horse stays in the stall for company breaks the spell of nervousness and the horse sleeps and rests In most good stables is a clock which the night watch ¬ man passes on his half hourly rounds which unless wound up each half hour registers the omission thus insuring so fcr as possible unceasing super ¬ vision of the valuable charges under the trainers hands handsAs As for responsibility few on the outside have any idea of its immensity The stock is worth from 50000 to ten times that amount Fourteen horses need a trainer assistant two jockeys tbree exercise boys and four to eight rubbers The expenses will reach higher than the total of im ¬ portant stakes won even by a satisfactorily success ¬ ful stable It is the one thing at which the wealthy man does not expect to break even Thus the amount of dead loss depends on the trainer rarely indeed is there a balance to the good Consequently every time a crack is engaged the trainers heart is in his mouth and every time he goes off feed ho breaks Into a cold sweat The average trainer loses nights aud nights without sleep just worrying over what he cannot control controllie lie is a czar ruling horses help and jockeys superintending every purchase the individual hours kept and the work done The training stable is a delicately adjusted watch Every cog and spring has Its yifal use must be kept clean lubricated and steadily at work without irregularity in frie tlonless harmony Horse boy and man must l e comfortably housed and fed keep good hours keep at the top notch of health and good spirits and all of this is on the shoulders of the trainer the man who stands for the unswerving honesty of purpose found on the highclass metropolitan turf W 1 Pond in Outing
